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LIBRARY 

OF  THF. 

University  of  California. 

GIKT  OK 

\ 

Class 


THE  EPHOD: 

ITS  FORM  AND   USE. 


THEODORE   CLINTON    FOOTE. 


DISSERTATION   SUBMITTED  TO   THE  BOARD    OF   UNIVERSITY   STUDIES   OF 

THE  JOHNS   HOPKINS   UNIVERSITY   IN    CONFORMITY   WITH 

THE   REQUIREMENTS    FOR   THE   DEGREE   OF 

DOCTOR  OF  PHILOSOPHY. 


Reprinted  from  the  Journal  of  Biblical  Literature,    Vol.  XXL,  Part  /.,  igo2. 


BALTIMORE. 

1902. 


,1^ 


\c- 


-0 


yrj^ 


V 


THE    EPHOD: 

ITS    FORM    AND    USE. 

1.    INTRODUCTION. 

THE  popular  notion  of  the  Hebrew  'ephodh  is  that  of  a  long  flow- 
ing garment,  and  is  drawn  in  part,  no  doubt,  from  the  descrip- 
tion in  Ex.  28  and  39,  but  also  very  largely  from  pictorial  Bibles, 
representing  a  high  priest  in  a  long  robe,  and  from  sacred  prints  of 
little  Samuel  in  a  neat  white  tunic  not  unlike  the  surplice  of  a  modern 
choir  boy. 

Learned  commentators  have  set  forth  many  widely  divergent  views 
concerning  the  ephod,  which  fall  roughly  into  two  classes.  The  first 
class  presents  a  view,  based  upon  Ex.  28  and  39,  that  the  ephod  was 
a  garment,  and  never  anything  else.^  This  is  the  opinion  of  all  the 
old  commentators.  St.  Jerome,  Ep.  ad  Marcellain,  writes  :  "  There 
were  two  kinds  of  ephods  :  one,  used  solely  by  the  high  priest,  which 
is  the  kind  now  generally  referred  to  ;  the  other,  of  linen,  used  by 
minor  priests  and  worn  also  by  the  Levites  and  even  by  laymen,  when 
engaged  in  a  sacred  rite." 

The  same  view  is  emphatically  stated  by  Thenius."  The  ephod 
is  nowhere  (not  even  in  Hos.  3^)  anything  else  than  a  shoulder  gar- 
ment, as  is  shown  also  by  the  fact  that  all  the  Versions,  in  all  passages 
where  the  word  occurs  (with  the  single  exception  of  the  unimportant 
Arabic  translation  of  Jud.  8^"),  either  put  the  name  itself,  or  garment, 
mantle  and  the  like. 

1  This  view  is  advanced  by  ancient  writers  such  as  Josephus  and  Jerome,  in 
the  Middle  Ages  by  Rashi,  and  since  then  by  Bertheau,  Braunius,  Cassell,  Dill- 
mann,  Duff,  Gesenius-Buhi,  Keil,  Kohler,  Konig,  Lotz,  Maimonides,  McClintock 
and  Strong,  Meyer,  Riehm,  J.  Robertson,  Thenius,  and  Zeller. 

2  "Die  Biicher  Samuels"  (in  the  Kgf.  exeg.  Handb.),  2d  ed.,  Leipzig,  1864, 
new  ed.  by  Lohr. 

I 


2  JOURNAL   OF    BIBLICAL    LITERATURE. 

An  English  view  to  the  same  effect  is  given  in  a  recent  book'"'  by 
Professor  Robertson,  of  Glasgow ;  speaking  of  Gideon's  ephod,  he 
says  :  "Whatever  was  made,  was  a  thing  of  magnificence,  and  implied 
costly  surroundings  ;  but  it  is  not,  by  all  this,  proved  that  ephod 
means  an  image.  It  may  have  been  merely  a  coat  of  extraordinary 
magnificence,  so  heavy  that  it  could  stand  alone,  as  we  say ;  it  may 
have  been  placed  upon  an  image  ;  but  it  was  an  ephod,  and  an 
ephod,  so  far  as  the  usage  of  the  language  tells  us,  was  a  coat  or 
covering." 

The  second  class  of  views  concerning  the  ephod  would  make  it 
in  some  places  an  image  and  in  others  a  garment.*  The  citations 
are  given  somewhat  at  length  because  they  are  the  most  authoritative 
and  recent  critical  opinions. 

Benzinger  says  ^  that  Yahweh  was  very  commonly  represented  by  a 
bull,  but  almost  more  frequently  the  idol  was  what  is  called  an  ephod. 
It  appears  as  the  proper  object  of  worship  in  the  celebrated  sanctua- 
ries of  Dan  (Jud.  17  and  1 8),  Ophra  (Jud.  8^*^),  Nob  (i  Sa.  21^"  23*'). 
Of  course  it  represented  Yahweh.  About  its  form  we  know  nothing. 
From  the  name  ephod '  covering,  garment,'  it  may  be  concluded  that 
it  had  a  kernel  of  wood,  clay,  or  cheap  metal,  and  over  it  a  mantle 
of  gold  or  silver,  often  of  great  value.  Its  special  significance  lies  in 
this,  that  it  was  inseparably  connected  with  the  sacred  lot.  The 
management  of  the  ephod  was,  therefore,  the  affair  of  the  priest ;  at 
any  rate  the  ephod  needed  a  servant  and,  as  a  rule,  a  house  also.  It 
was  the  means  whereby  one  inquired  of  God.  It  is  remarkable  that 
the  official  garment  of  the  priests  is  likewise  called  ephod — more 
exactly  ephodh  badh,  the  'linen  ephod,'  i  Sa.  2^^  and  elsewhere,  to 
distinguish  it  from  the  former.  It  is  not  a  bad  idea  of  Smend's  that 
perhaps  the  image  was  originally  clothed  in  an  ephodh  badh  ;  cf.  the 
custom  among  the  old  Arabs  of  putting  on  garments  and  swords 
(Wellhausen,  Skizzen,  III.  99).*^  The  expression  nose  ephodh,  as  the 
name  of  the  priest,  which  was  afterwards  referred  to  the  linen  coat, 

8  Early  Religion  of  Israel,  Edin.  and  London,  1892,  p.  231. 

*  Variously  modified,  this  view  is  advanced  by  Alizon,  Benzinger,  Budde,  De 
Wette,  Driver,  Eichhorn,  Gesenius,  Graniberg,  Hengstenberg,  Kautzsch,  Kittel, 
Kuenen,  Marti,  Maybaum,  J.  D.  Michaelis,  Montefiore,  Moore,  Nowack,  Reuss, 
H.  Schultz,  Smend,  W.  R.  Smith,  Stade,  Studer,  Vatke,  and  Wellhausen.  Duhm 
thinks  a  '  mask,'  Sellin  a  '  quiver ' ;   cf.  below,  p.  4. 

''  Hebr'dische  Archdologie,  1894,  p.  382  f. 

^  Wellhausen,  I.e.,  says  it  is  not  necessary  to  suppose  that  garments  and  swords 
were  put  on  images;   they  may  have  been  put  on  stones  or  trees. 


FOOTE :     THE    EPHOD.  3 

meant  originally  nothing  else  than  the  bearer  of  the  image  (i  Sa.  14', 
LXX).' 

Professor  Moore,  of  Harvard,  in  his  Commentary  on  Judges,  New 
York,  1S95,  p.  379,  has  the  following:  "Gideon's  ephod  .  .  .  was 
clearly  an  idol  of  some  kind,"  adding  in  a  footnote,  "It  would  be 
more  exact  to  say,  an  agalma;  in  using  the  word  idol  here  and  below, 
I  do  not  wish  to  be  understood  to  assume  that  it  was  iconic.  All  that 
can  with  certainty  be  gathered  from  them  [the  passages  where  ephod 
occurs  in  Judges  and  Samuel]  is  that  it  was  a  portable  object  which 
was  employed  or  manipulated  by  the  priest  in  consulting  the  oracle. 
In  the  Priests'  Law-book,  the  ephod  is  a  part  of  the  ceremonial  dress 
of  the  high  priest,  to  which  the  oracle-pouch  containing  Urim  and 
Thummim  is  attached ;  but,  while  it  is  probable  that  the  oracle  of 
the  high  priest  is  a  survival  of  the  ancient  priestly  oracle  by  the 
ephod,  it  is  impossible  to  explain  the  references  to  the  ephod  in  Judges 
and  Samuel  by  the  descriptions  in  P."     More  recently,-  Moore  sug- 

"^  It  may  be  as  well  to  introduce  here  some  consideration  of  the  ephodh  badh, 
which,  in  the  above  extract,  is  supposed  to  mean  '  linen  ephod.'  The  word  HH, 
'  linen,'  has  no  etymology,  although  it  has  been  proposed  to  regard  it  as  an  error 
for  "1-,  connected  with  kad,  the  Sumerian  prototype  of  the  Assyrian  kitii,  which 
may  have  meant  '  linen.'  The  most  serious  objection  to  the  rendering  '  linen,' 
however,  is  found  in  Ex.  39-^  (see  below,  p.  11),  where  it  is  stated  that  the  "C:"I2 
IS,  supposed  to  mean  '  linen  breeches,'  were  made  of  ti-'Si',  a  material  which  may 
mean  '  muslin '  or  '  linen.'  The  I,XX  omits  "12,  though  Theodolion  restores  it 
transliterated,  thus  showing  that  the  word  was  not  understood.  The  Targum 
rendering  is  the  same  as  that  of  our  English  versions.  It  seems  clear  that  1—  did 
not  mean  the  material  of  the  garment,  and  was  misunderstood  by  the  time  the 
Versions  were  made.  Professor  Haupt  has  suggested  that  the  13  HISK  is  equiva- 
lent to  Trepl^uifia  fioplov,  siibligaculum  ineinhri  ;  13,  a  '  member  '  of  the  body,  as 
in  Job  i8i'5*,  is  identical  with  13,  a  'part,'  cf.  pars  {virilis).  In  Ex.  25i3ff- 
I  Ki.  8"  Num.  4^,  3'13  means  '  poles '  (Latin  asser)  just  as  <pa\\6$  may  be 
connected  with  pdhis.  The  (pa\\6s  was  originally  a  piece  of  fig  or  olive  wood. 
The  expression  in  Ex.  28^-,  13  "C;3tt,  rendered  '  linen  breeches,'  is  probably  to 
be  understood  as  a  'covering  of  the  nakedness,'  i.e.  'kilts'  (see  Note  A).  The 
two  phrases  which  follow,  viz. :  mil?  lil'3  ri'DSb  '  to  cover  the  flesh  of  naked- 
ness,' and  Vl"  Q'?l'  111  D"ri^D  '  they  shall  reach  from  the  loins  even  to  the 
thighs,'  seem  to  be  explanatory  glosses.  Josephus,  Antiquities,  iii.  7.  I,  calls  it 
the  Sid^oj/xa  wepi  to.  aiSoTa,  and  Philo  -Trfpi^wp-a  els  aidoiwv  CKiir-qv.  The  mikhnese 
badh,  if  this  interpretation  of  13  be  correct,  will  not  be  'breeches'  (cf.  Pesh. 
Xaina  =  ■Kipl^wp.a),  but  like  the  Scotch  kilt,  a  very  short  skirt  such  as  is 
seen  in  representations  on  Egj'ptian  and  Babylonian  monuments.  (For  an 
extended  examination  of  the  passages  with  13,  see  Note  D.~)  We  must  then 
understand  epitodk  badh  to  be  epitodh  partis  (znrilis). 

^  Cheyne-Black's  Encyclopaedia  Biblica,  vol.  ii..  New  York,  1901,  under 
"  Ephod." 


4  JOURNAL   OF   BIBLICAL   LITER-VfURE. 

gests  that  the  ephod  may  have  been  a  loincloth ;  but  adheres  to  his 
former  distinction  between  the  ephod-garvient  and  ephod-idol. 

Professor  Marti,  of  Berne,  after  discussing  the  Teraphim,  says  :  ^ 
"  Not  with  the  same  certainty  can  the  origin  of  the  ephod  be  deter- 
mined. It  is  certain,  however,  that  it  also  signifies  an  image  of  a 
god.  But  where  we  now  find  it  in  the  O.T.  in  this  sense,  it  must 
be  taken  as  an  image  of  Yahvveh  (in  Ophra,  where  Gideon  sets  it  up, 
Jud.  8-''-'^,  in  Dan,  Jud.  i8^**^,  also  before  in  Yf^-,  and  in  Nob, 
I  Sa.  21'"  2-^^-^.  It  could,  therefore,  owe  its  origin  only  to  a  subse- 
quent period.  This,  however,  is  not  probable.  Here  also  it  is 
much  easier  to  assume  that  the  old  custom  of  making  images  of 
gods,  as  the  Teraphim  at  any  rate  testifies  to,  was  transferred  to 
Yahweh.  Therefore  we  have  to  discuss  here  the  sacred  object  called 
the  ephod. 

"  The  name  ephod  points  to  the  fact  that,  earlier,  these  images  had 
an  overlaying  of  silver  or  gold  (cf.  Jud.  8-"^  i?^*^'),  and  that  even 
molten  images  were  found  (cf.  Ex.  32,  i  Ki.  12--)." 

Professor  Sellin,  of  Vienna,^"  speaking  of  arrows  used  in  giving  the 
tordh,  says  :  "  Perhaps  they  were  bound  together  in  a  bundle  (cf. 
I  Sa.  25"^),  at  any  rate  carried  in  or  at  the  ephod.  This  must  have 
been  either  a  covering  over  the  arrows,  just  as  the  bow  and  arrows 
of  a  warrior  were  put  in  a  covering  (Hab.  3^  Zech.  9'^),  or  more 
probably  a  girdle  or  band  on  which  was  carried  the  quiver  with  the 
arrows  (cf.  "ITIS!),  and  in  the  course  of  time  the  name  of  the  band 
came  to  signify  the  entire  oracle  instrument.  IISX  never  signifies  an 
image  of  a  god,  no  matter  how  much  this  is  maintained  as  certain ; 
not  even  Jud.  S-*"-  (cf.  Konig,  Haiiptprobleinc,  p.  62).  Rather  is 
this  signification  excluded  by  Jud.  17^*"  18'*-"  Hos.  3*  (cf.  also 
Ez.  21-')  ;  molten  image,  ephod,  and  teraphim  are  three  separate 
things.  Nor  is  that  meaning  possible  in  i  Sa.  14'^,  for  one  man  did 
not  carry  the  image  before  his  people ;  more  likely  a  wagon  was 
used.  Or^  the  other  hand,  the  word  in  these  passages,  and  also  in 
I  Sa.  23"  30^  can  as  little  signify  the  simple  priestly  garment,  which, 
precisely  to  distinguish  it  from  that  ephod,  was  called  ephodh  badh 
(i  Sa.  2^**  22'^  2  Sa.  6^'').  Now  ephodh  is  certainly  a  covering  of 
metal  or  with  metal  woven  into  it  (Is.  30'"  Ex.  28'*  39')-  It  seems 
to  me  to  follow  as  a  certainty  from    i  Sa.  i^^.  is. «   lxX,   30',  that 

'^  Die  Geschichte  der  israelitiuhen   Religion,    Strassburg,    1897,  PP-    29   and 

lOI. 

^^  Beitr'dge  zur  israelitischen  ttnd  jitdischen  Keligionsgeschichte,  Leipzig,  1897, 
II.,  p.  115  ff. 


FOOTE :     THE   EPHOD.  5 

ephodh  has  this  meaning,  and  was,  therefore,  either  a  covering  over 
the  Urivi,  or,  better,  a  band  on  which  the  priest  carried  it."  " 

Professor  Kautzsch  ^-  explains  ephod  as  '  covering,'  especially  the 
linen  shoulder  garment  of  the  priest.  In  the  Textbibel  it  is  always 
retained  wherever  it  signifies  an  image  of  Yahweh  used  for  oracular 
purposes,  overlaid  with  precious  metal  or  perhaps  more  correctly  a 
shoulder  garment. 

Professor  Budde  says  :  ^'  "  It  is  true  that  ephod  signifies  also  a 
priestly  garment,  but  only  with  the  addition  badh  ( i  Sa.  2^^ ;  2  Sa.  6"  ; 
I  Chr.  15"').  Both  significations  are  later  combined  in  the  ephod  of 
the  high  priest  in  the  source  P,  the  shoulder  garment  into  which  the 
oracle  of  the  Uriin  and  Thummim  was  inserted.  The  old  ephod  of 
our  passage  and  those  referred  to,  must  somehow  have  represented 
the  Deity,  and  also  have  been,  at  a  later  time,  repudiated.  The 
gold  formed  the  covering  of  a  kernel  of  another  material ;  but 
whether  the  word  ephod  is  to  be  derived  from  a  root  signifying  to 
draw  over,  cover,  according  to  Is.  30",  remains  very  questionable." 

For  convenience  of  reference,  the  description  of  the  ephod  as 
found  in  the  Priests'  Code  is  here  given,  being  condensed  from 
Ex.  28  and  39. 

Ex.  39- :  "  Moses  made  the  ephod^^  of  gold,  blue,  and  purple,  and 
scarlet,  and  fine  twined  linen.  They  beat  the  gold  into  thin  sheets 
and  cut  it  into  wires,  to  work  it  in  the  blue,  in  the  purple,  in  the 
scarlet,  and  in  the  fine  twined  linen,  the  work  of  the  skilled  weaver. 
They  made  shoulder  pieces  for  the  ephod,  joining  together :  the  ephod 
was  joined  together  at  the  two  ends.  The  skilfully  woven  piece  that 
was  upon  it,  to  gird  it  on  with,  zvas  of  the  same  piece  and  similar 
ivorkmansJdp.  And  he  made  the  ornament  (breastplate),  the  work 
of  the  skilled  weaver,  like  the  work  of  the  ephod.  The  ornament  was 
square  and  double,  being  a  span  in  length  and  breadth.  They  bound 
the  ornament  by  its  rings,  to  the  rings  of  the  ephod  with  a  lacing  of 
blue  to  keep  it  in  place  on  the  skilfully  woven  piece  of  the  ephod  that 
it  might  not  be  loosed  from  the  ephod."  Ex.  28^" :  "  Thou  shall  put 
in  the  ornament  oi 'yxdigWitXiX.  the  Urim  and  Thummim  that  they  may 
be  upon  Aaron's  heart.''     Ex.  39--' :  "  Moses  made  the  robe  of  the 

^^  Dr.  Sellin's  view  does  not  exactly  fit  either  of  the  two  classes. 

12  Textbibel  des  Alten  mid  A'etien  Testaments.  Erklarung  tier  Fremdworter, 
s.v.  "  Ephod." 

J3  Richter,  Freiburg,  1897,  P-  68. 

1*  The  italicized  parts,  read  consecutively,  will  give  as  clear  an  idea  of  this 
ephod  as  can  be  gotten  from  such  a  confusing  description. 


6  JOURNAL    OF    BIBLICAL    LlTER.VrUKE. 

ephod  of  woven  work,  all  of  blue,  and  the  hole  of  the  robe  in  the 
middle  of  it.  They  made  upon  the  skirts  of  the  robe  pomegranates 
of  blue,  etc." 

It  must  not  be  forgotten  that  the  above  account,  taken  from  the 
book  of  Exodus,  is  several  centuries  later  than  the  latest  pre-exilic 
mention  of  the  ephod  ;  and  to  attempt  to  make  it  a  starting-point 
in  an  investigation  of  the  ancient  ephod,  would  be  like  trying  to 
understand  Gutenberg's  first  attempt  at  printing  by  starting  with  an 
intricate  description  of  the  latest  cylinder  press.  If  one  is  con- 
strained to  question  the  later  composition  of  the  Priests'  Code,  the 
following  investigation  may  help  him  to  see  that  this  is  not  an  arbi- 
trary, but  rather  an  unavoidable,  conclusion. 

The  graphic  account  which  follows  presents  the  ephod  in  quite  as 
interesting  if  not  so  picturesque  an  aspect,  and  leads  one  to  inquire 
what  the  ephod  actually  was. 

In  2  Sa.  6^^*'^-  is  the  story '^  of  the  bringing  up  of  the  Ark  from  the 
house  of  Obed-Edom,  to  the  tent  ^''  made  for  it  at  Jerusalem.  David 
had  not  only  succeeded  Saul  on  the  throne  of  Israel,  but  had  also 
married  his  daughter  Michal,  i  Sa.  iS'",  who  held  a  prominent  posi- 
tion among  his  many  wives.  The  procession  in  which  the  Ark  was 
borne,  moved  along  with  pomp  and  ceremony.  David  danced  before 
the  sacred  palladium  with  great  enthusiasm,  being  girded  with  an 
ephod.  All  the  Israelitish  nation  assisted  in  bringing  up  the  Ark  of 
Yahweh  with  shouting  and  the  sound  of  trumpets.  As  the  Ark 
entered  the  city  the  women  lined  the  way.  David  danced  with  great 
spirit,  and  Michal,  looking  out  from  the  palace,  saw  him  and  became 
exceedingly  angry. 

The  Ark  was  at  length  placed  in  the  tent,  and  David,  thoroughly 
exhausted  by  the  long  festivity,  returned  to  his  palace  to  greet  his 
family.     So  far  overcome  by  her  feelings  that  she  forgot  all  other 

^5  Taken  from  the  document  J,  probably  not  later  than  S50  li.C. 

1*^  The  distinctive  name  for  the  Tabernacle  is  JSv  C,  '  dwelling,'  though  it  was 
very  commonly  described  as  ni,"tt  ^HS,  'Tent  of  Meeting.'  David  evidently 
knew  nothing  of  the  Tabernacle  of  the  Priests'  Code,  Ex.  26  and  35,  but  impro- 
vises a  tent  for  the  reception  of  the  Ark.  A  comparison  of  2  Chr.  i*  with  i^' 
shows  that  the  'Tent  of  Meeting,'  "ir'Q  SlS,  was  at  Gibeon,  according  to  the 
Chronicler,  but  it  is  inconceivable  that  David  could  have  known  of  such  a 
divinely  ordained  and  venerable  Tent,  made  especially  for  the  Ark,  and  then 
have  improvised  another.  The  consciousness  of  its  unfitness  leads  David  to  plan 
the  building  of  a  temple.  It  may  be  noted,  also,  in  connection  with  the  above 
narrative,  that,  if  our  explanation  of  ephod  be  correct,  David  could  not  have 
known  of  Ex.  20''^^,  forbidding  indecent  exposure  during  sacred  rites. 


FOOTE  :     THE    EPHOD.  7 

considerations,  Michal  went  out  to  meet  her  royal  spouse  and  said, 
"  How  glorious  was  the  king  of  Israel  to-day,  who  uncovered  himself 
to-day  in  the  sight  of  the  handmaids  of  his  servants,  as  one  of  the 
shameless  fellows  !  "  David  said  to  Michal,  "  I  will  dance  ^'  before 
Yahweh  !  Blessed  be  Yahweh,  who  chose  me  in  preference  to  thy 
father  and  all  his  kin,  to  appoint  me  prince  over  the  people  of 
Yahweh  !  Therefore  I  shall  play  before  Yahweh.  And  even  if  I 
should  uncover  myself  still  more  and  be  contemptible  in  thine  eyes, 
I  am  sure  that  the  girls  you  allude  to  will  respect  my  royal  dignity."  '^ 
The  story  closes  with  the  statement :  "  And  Michal  the  daughter  of 
Saul  never  had  another  child."  Orthodox  commentators  attribute 
the  curse  of  barrenness  to  divine  retribution.  It  is  more  natural, 
howev^er,  to  suppose  that  David  was  so  disgusted  with  Michal  that 
he  ceased  visiting  her,  which  was  social  death  to  the  member  of  a 
harem.  ^Slichal's  jealousy  would  evidently  not  have  been  aroused 
if  the  ephod  had  been,  as  is  commonly  supposed,  a  long  flowing 
garment.  It  is  more  likely  that  David  was  divested  of  his  clothing, 
as  was,  on  certain  occasions  {e.g.  i  Sa.  19-'')  customary  among 
Semitic  peoples  [see  Note  ^],  and  was  girded  with  the  ephod,  as  if 
an  apron,  or  as  Professor  Haupt  has  suggested,  a  loincloth. 

Resume.  —  The  principal  views  regarding  the  ephod  are  as  follows  : 
(i)  It  was  always  a  garment  worn  by  a  priest;  (2)  it  was  always  a 
garment,  whether  on  priest  or  idol ;  (3)  it  was  a  garment  and  also 
an  idol ;  (4)  it  was  a  garment  and  a  quiver  or  quiver  belt.  The  only 
description  given  in  the  O.T.  shows  that  the  ephod  was  something 
depending  from  the  shoulders  to  the  waist,  and  put  on  over  a  long 
robe.     But  this  entirely  fails  to  satisfy  the  narrative  in  2  Sa.  6. 

1"  The  Received  Text  is  evidently  corrupt.  After  the  words  n'n'  'JET*  the 
LXX  has  ri'iT  "^'"121  1|5"1K.  The  phrase  7S"ll''  TT  seems  like  an  explanatory 
gloss.  For  Ti'T'i;",  '  I  will  be  vile,'  the  LXX  reads  koX  a.iroK<iKv<p6ri(TOfj.ai  = 
T'7^13'',  *  I  will  uncover  myself,'  thus  making  clear  an  otherwise  confused  state- 
ment. The  Masoretic  text  shows  signs  of  having  been  tampered  with.  T'T'i'SJI 
is  an  indefinite  expression  not  corresponding  to  nX'tt  I'L'.  The  LXX  reading 
"^'I'l'^,  '  in  thine  eyes,'  for  '  in  my  eyes,'  brings  out  the  antithesis  which  lies 
between  Michal's  feeling  and  that  of  the  handmaids.  Driver  strangely  neglects 
the  LXX  on  this  passage;  cf.  Xo/es  on  the  Hebrew  Text  of  Samuel,  Oxford,  1890, 
p.  210.      The  Hebrew  text  restored  would  then  read:    "|1"1-1  njl3']K    n",T  "27 

['rx-if  bi']  n',T  nr  Sr  t;;  'iik  n'i'?  t'z  hiti"  T"^^  '-  "'"-  "^'^'^  ^"^' 

**  Literally:  "And  I  shall  play  before  Yahweh.  And  I  shall  uncover  myself 
more  than  this,  and  I  shall  become  contemptible  in  thine  eyes,  but  with  the 
handmaids  which  you  spoke  of,  with  them,  let  me  be  honored."  ^ 


CV/NIVERSITV  J 


JOURNAL   OF    BIBLICAL   LITERATURE. 


2.    WHAT  WAS  THE  EPHOD? 

The  ephod  is  mentioned  in  seventeen  different  passages  in  the 
Old  Testament,  and  the  word,  with  slight  variation  in  form,  occurs 
fifty  times.  In  studying  the  different  passages,  we  must  not  overlook 
the  fact  that  the  O.T.  is  not  a  homogeneous  whole.  If,  therefore, 
we  wish  to  ascertain  the  original  idea  of  the  ephod,  we  must  treat 
the  passages  in  chronological  order.  They  cover  a  period  of  about 
400  years,  approximately  from  800  b.c.  to  400  B.C.,  while  the  actual 
time  between  Gideon's  ephod,  Jud.  8-',  and  tlie  latest  mention  of 
the  ephod  may  have  been  well  on  to  1000  years.  There  was  time 
for  development ;  and  it  is  possible  that  the  post-exilic  ephod  was 
quite  different  from  that  of  ancient  Israel. 

Wore  than  half  of  all  the  places  where  the  word  ephod  occurs 
belong  to  the  priestly  sections  of  Exodus  and  Leviticus,  which  are 
known  to  be  not  older,  ///  their  present  shape,  than  500  b.c.  The 
historical  books  are  not  the  work  of  a  single  writer,  but  are  com- 
posed of  several  strata.  The  oldest  stratum,  or  what  is  called  the 
Judaic  document,  was  compiled  not  later  than  800  b.c,  and  to  this 
document  we  must  assign  most  of  the  passages  from  Judges  and 
Samuel  in  which  the  ephod  is  mentioned.  For  convenience  of 
reference,  the  pre-exilic  passages  are  here  given. 

(i)  Jud.  82",  b'2  i:n  (D)  nnsp  titd  in^K  jri  tss"?  ^xi-i)  imx  tT"  (j) 

CC  VinX  7'K"'i"ii",  "Gideon  made  an  ephod  of  it  [the  gold  and  raiment], 
and  put  it  in  his  city  Ophra,  and  all  Israel  went  astray  after  it  there." 
LXX,  eh  e0£t>5.  Alia  exempt,  ecpovd.  Procopius  in  Catena  Niceph.  T.  II., 
p.  180:  £(^0115,  [xavrelov  rj  €i5u}\ov.  'A,  eirivdv/xa.  V,  Feciique  ex  eo 
Gedeon  ephod.     Pesh.,  K^ET  121". 

(2)  Jud.  175,  D"£-im  T2K  rU'l  D'hSk  D'S  "h  T\T):>  D'Xni  (J),  "Micah  had 

a  private  chapel,  and  he  made  an  ephod  and  teraphim."  LXX,  c0w5  koX 
0ipa<piv.  Syro-Hex.,  ei  alia  exempt.,  e<povd;  'A,  ivwfiida;  Z,  evdv/xa 
Upa7iK6v;  'A,  fiopcpui/xara;  2,  eldwXa.  V,  Qui  aedicidam  quoque  in  ea 
Deo  separavit,  et  fecit  ephod  et  teraphim,  id  est,  vestem  sacerdotalem,  et 
idola  (O.L.  et  penates).     Pesh.,  NC'IS  m2  nri". 

(3)  Jud.  iS'S  O'S-li-n  T£S  rh'A'T,   C-rrr  U"  "3  Cni'Tn  (J),  "Do  you  know 

that  there  are,  in  these  houses,  an  ephod  and  teraphim?"  LXX,  e0w5 
(rt/.  ex.  f(povd)  Kal  depcLKpiv.  V,  iVostis  quod  in  domibus  istis  sit  ephod,  et 
teraphim  ?     Pesh.,  SD'nEI  «rne\ 

(4)  Jud.  18I",  n'Snnn  nSI  TEKH  nS',  "And  the  ephod  and  the  teraphim." 

Perhaps  a  later  addition,  cf.  Moore's  Judges,  Internat.  Com.,  p.  397,  and 
SBOT.,  Judges,  p.  621. 


FOOTE :     THE    EPHOD.  9 

(5)  Jud.  18I8,  D"B-inn  MKI  -nSKH  boa  n^  inp'l  (J),  "They  took  the  image, 

the  ephod,  and  the  teraphim."  LXX,  Kal  e\aj3ov  rb  ■yXvirrbv  Kai  to  ^^ 
€<pu8  \_alia,  €<povb'\  Kal  rb  ffepacpiv.     V,    Ttderunt  igitur  qui  intraverant, 

sctilptile,  ephod,  et  idola. 

(6)  Jud.  i82o,  bcsn  ns'1  D'snnn  nxi  niBKn  nx  nj^i  (j),  "He  took  the 

ephod,  the  teraphim,  and  the  graven  image."  LXX,  rh  e<^cj5  \^alia, 
i(po\jb'\  KoX  rh  dfpa(pii>  Kal  t6  yXvwTbv.  V,  et  tidit  ephod  et  idola,  ac 
sculptile. 

(7)  I  Sa.  2I8,  na  mas  nun  lu:  m>T  "is  nx  n-irts  bi^iatn  (e^),  "Samuei 

ministered  before  Yahweh,  a  child,  girded  with  an  ephodh  badh."  LXX, 
Kai  '^afiovrfK  ^v  Xeirovpywv  ivdnriov  Kvpiov  TraLddpiov  wepLe^waixivov  €(pov5 
^ad  \_alia  exenipl.,  /3ap-'].  'A,  i-rr^vdufia  i^aipeTov.  2,  e(f>ov8  Xivovv. 
O,  e(po}d  ^ap.     V,  puer,  accinctus  ephod  lineo.     Pesh.,  X^m  XmS. 

(8)  I  Sa.  228,  ^i^  -iiES  nXtrS  (RD),  'To  l^ear  an  ephod  before  Me."     LXX, 

Kal  aXpi.iv  e4)ov5  \_alia,  ivibiriov  i/jLov^.     V,  et  portaret  ephod  coram  me. 

(9)  I  Sa.  143,  "IISK  KC3  .  .  .  rrnif   (J),  "Ahijah  bearing  an  ephod."      LXX, 

alpoiv  e(pov8.      A,  (pipojv  iireduT-qv.     V,  portahat  ephod. 

(10)  I  Sa.  1418*-,  ^IDK  'IT  las"!  .  .  ,  (msx)  ntT'^n  rrnxb  "^ixtr  niaK^^i  q) 

"]T,  "  Saul  said  to  Ahijah,  Bring  hither  the  ephod,  for  he  bore  the  ephod 
at  that  time  among  the  Israelites.  .  .  .  And  Saul  said,  Withdraw  thy 
hands."  LXX,  irpocrdyaye  rb  €(povd  ■  on.  avrbs  Tjpev  rb  ecpovd  [a/ia 
exenipl.,  6ti  ^v  t]  Ki^ojrbs  rod  deov'\  iv  rri  rj/xipq.  eKeifri  ivunrtov  laparjX  .  .  . 
Kal  eiire  SaouX  7rp6s  rbv  iepia,  'Zvvdyaye  rds  xetpcis  (tov.  V,  Applica 
arcam  Dei  .  .  .  et  ait  Saul  ad  sacerdotem  :  Conlrahe  nianum  tuatn. 

19  Kal  rb  e(pio8  probably  indicates  that  "IIBKH  702,  which  means  the  image  of 
the  ephod,  is  a  copyist's  error,  representing  an  original  text  llSJ^n  flKI  bcsn. 
This  text  is  given  in  Field's  He.xapla,  with  inpb  for  inp"1. 

-''  Hieroiiyini  0pp.,  T.  vi.,  p.  903 :  Et  vestitus,  inquit,  erat  Samuel  ephod  BAD, 
id  est,  indumenta  lineo  ;  had  enim  linum  appellatur,  unde  et  BADUIM  Una  di- 
cuntur.  Pro  quo  Hebraico  Latinoque  sermone  male  quidam  legunt  ephod  bar; 
siquidem  bar  autjilius  appellatur  a\it/rumenti  manipulus,  aut  electus,  aut  ov\o%, 
id  est,  crispus. 

21  The  Received  Text  reads:  .TH  ^3  D^'^bKn  Jn^?  rwr\  n'n«b  SlHlT  ni2N'1 
:  bt^na"  'D21  Xinn  nvn  D\nb«n  |n>«.  For  "Xn  JI-IK;  n^^an  must  be  read,  with 
LXX,  niBKH  nCjri,  not  only  because  the  Ark  was  at  Kirjath  Jearim  at  the  time, 
but  because  the  instrument  of  divination  was  not  the  Ark,  but  the  ephod,  which 
v.^  takes  pains  to  tell  us  Ahijah  had  with  him.  rill"an  is  the  regular  expression 
used  with  the  ephod  (cf.  239  30').  As  to  '?«-lt"'  "Jm  .  .  .  D'n'^S'n  pIX  .TH  'D, 
Driver  remarks  (cf.  Azotes  on  Samuel,  1890,  p.  84)  :  TXTil"  "-1  is  untranslatable, 
1  never  having  the  force  of  a  preposition  such  as  UV,  so  as  to  be  capable  of  being 
a  predicate  with  HTT.  We  must  read,  with  LXX,  Kinn  Dm  "I^SSn  SC:  Nin  "D 
bs"lC"  "2^.  It  is  certainly  better  to  suppose  '321  to  be  corrupted  from  "27 
than  that  ''Ith  has  fallen  out,  leaving  '321.  Driver  {loc.  cit.)  objects  that  "27 
7K"lC"  alone  at  the  end  of  a  clause  is  bald,  and  against  the  usage  of  Heb.  prose. 
It  is  true  that  in  Joshua  and  Chronicles  T'KIt''  "JD  is  more  common,  but  cf.  '327 
•^Xlt"  in  Josh.  116  2  Sa.  iqIS-  is  i  Chr.  igi^-  w  also  bs-lt'  '3£D  in  2  Sa.  iqIS,  and 
•rX-ir'  '32'?a  in  I  Chr.  19I8.  In  two  of  the  places  cited  bxit"  '32^  ends  the 
first  half  of  the  verse,  and  7K"lU!""bl7  stands  repeatedly  at  the  end  of  the  verse. 


lO  JOURNAL   OF   BIBLICAL   LITERATURE. 

(11)  I  Sa.  21  w  -nsK,-i  nnx  nbt]Dn  nmb  N"n  n:n . . .  nhi  n-in  (ei),  "The 

sword  of  Goliath  .  .  .  there  it  is,  wrapped  in  a  mantle,  behind  the  ephod." 
LXX,  iveiXTifiiyr]  ?jv  iv  Ifiarit^,  9  adds,  dwlcTw  ttjs  ^ttui/xiSos.'--  2,  €(povd, 
A,  ^irevdufxaTos.     V,  est  involittus  pallio  post  ephod. 

(12)  I  Sa.  2218,  -12  -nsx  KTO  r'K  ntram  D'ibty  snn  nvn  n^;i  (j),  "He 

killed  that  day  eighty-five  men  bearing  an  ephodh  badh."  LXX,  iravrai 
aipovras  ecpovd  [Alex.  'Klvov^.  A,  cpipovras  iirivdvp-a  i^aiperov.  V,  viros 
vestitos  ephod  liiieo. 

(13)  I  Sa.  23^,  ITS  1"!''  TIBX,  "An  ephod  went  down  in  his  hand."     Probably 

a  marginal  gloss;   cf.  SBOT.,  Sanniel,  p.  70. 

(14)  I  Sa.  239,  mSXn  nty-an  \r\'zr\  -in;nN  ^K  ItiK^I   (J),  "(David)  said  to  the 

priest,  Abiathar,  Bring  hither  the  ephod."  LXX,  ■wpoaa'^a.'^t  to  eipovd 
Kvpiov.     'A,  eyyicrov  to  evdv/iia  (fort.  ^Tr^cSn/xa).     V,  AppUca  ephod. 

(15)  I  Sa.  30",  -in^nx  rri  mcsn  ns*  nj  nc'iin  . .  .nrrrs*  ■?«  tt  n^x-i  (j) 

in  '7K  "IlEXn  nX,  "  David  said  to  Abiathar,  Please  bring  me  the  ephod; 
and  Abiathar  brought  David  the  ephod."  LXX,  irpoffdyaye  t6  ecpovd; 
'A,  Tvpocriyyiffov  dri  fxoi  to  iirivdv/xa;  2,  (TTrjcrov  wpbs  p.^  ttjv  iirdip-iSa; 
V,  Applica  ad  me  ephod. 

(16)  2  Sa.  6'4,  "O  mSi?  "llJn  m-n   (J),  "David   was   girded   with    an    ephodh 

badh?-^  LXX,  ivBedvKws  <TTo\r)v  e^aWou ;  'A,  eTr^vdvpa  i^aipeTov ; 
S,  VTTodvTriv  (fort.  eirevdvT-qv')  'Kivovv.  Praeterea  Jl/ontefalconio  edidit : 
dWos  e<pud  ^va-ffLvov  ex  j  Pa  ml.  15-',  tct  videtur.  V,  David  erat 
accinctus  ephod  lineo.     Pesh.,  KSCI—T  t^mS. 

(17)  I  Ki.  226^  'ns*  nn  "isb  <"n2Nn>  nx  nxt'3  "d  -^rT^^s*  )h  nn  crni,--*  "i 

will  not  kill  thee  now,  because  thou  hast  carried  the  ephod  before  my 
father  David."  LXX,  /cat  o\i  davarucroj  ere  oti  rjpas  ttjv  ki^utov  ttis 
diadrjKrjs  Kvplov  ivicTriov  tov  waTpds  p.ov.  V,  quia  porta sti  arcam  Domini 
Dei. 

(18)  Hos.  i\  (740  B.C.)  D'S-im  ^lEK  pXI  .  .  .  "^Xnt:"  "3:3  1211",  "The  Israelites 

shall    abide  without  ephod  and  teraphim."      LXX,  ovhe  iepaTeias,  ovdi 

22  Hieronymus,  in  Epist.  LXIV.  ad  Fabiolam,  15  (Opp.T.  L,  p.  363)  :  Se.xtum 
est  vestimentum,  quod  Hebraica  lingua  dicitur  EPHOD.  LXX,  ivuplda,  id  est 
superhumerale  appellant;    Aq.  in^vdvp-a,  nos  ephod  sxao  ponimus  nomine. 

23  See  above,  p.  3,  note  7. 

2*  This  passage  is  to  be  compared  with  i  Sa.  14I8,  where  Ark  was  evidently 
substituted  for  ephod z.iier  the  LXX  was  made;  see  note  21,  p.  9  above.  In  this 
passage  the  LXX  represents  a  text :  m,T  IT'ID  p1i<  TX  21X^3  '3,  so  that  if  the 
change  of  TISX  to  f1"lX  took  place,  it  was  earlier  than  the  LXX,  provided  the 
LXX  has  not  been  altered.  There  are  two  arguments  for  reading  T2X,  apart 
from  any  desire  to  suppress  the  word  ephod  (for  which  see  p.  40),  and  apart  from 
its  being  a  natural  thing  for  a  scribe  to  recall  the  bringing  of  the  Ark  to  Jeru- 
salem (2  Sa.  6),  and  write  JTlX  for  TEX:  (i)  The  expression  is  unsuitable,  for 
no  one  person  ever  bore  the  Ark,  and,  on  the  other  hand,  IIBX  Ktl'D  is  the  regular 
expression  for  the  priest  with  the  ephod;  (2)  the  context  does  not  suit  Ark  and 
does  suit  ephod,  for  v.^^*  refers  to  the  afflictions  which  Abiathar  shared  with 
David,  which  can  only  refer  to  the  time  when  David  was  fleeing  before  Saul,  and 
Abiathar  was  with  him,  bearing  not  the  Ark  but  the  ephod,  as  is  evident  from 
I  Sa.  23^  and  30'^. 


FOOTE :    THE    EPHOD.  1 1 

StjXwi';  'a,  Kal  aKOVOVTOs  5t'  ev5vnaTos  Kai  oia  fj.op(pwfxdTU}v;  2,  0,  oi;5^ 
E0w5,  ovd^  Qepa^iv.-^  V,  sine  ephod  et  sine  theraphim ;  O.L.  7ieque 
Ephod  (^simulacrum)  et  Teraphim  {penates).  Pesh.,  miBK  tTzS  N'T'11 
KI2C3  CKC1. 

Two  post-exilic  passages  are  appended  : 

(19)  Is,  3022, , ,  _  a-itn  -[2n)  n2Di2  niEK  nxi  "[£C3  ^b'ca  "isi:  nK  26nj<j2t2i, 

"  Thou  shall  defile  the  silver  plating  of  thy  images  and  ihy  molten  gold 
band;  thou  shalt  scatter  them."  LXX,  Kai  /xiaveis  \_alia  exempt.  koX 
e|ape?s]  rb.  fi8o}\a  to.  irepirjpyvpujfxeva  Kal  7rept/cexpi;(rw;u.e'ca  XeTrra  Troirjcris. 
V,  laminas  sculptilium  .  .  .  vestimentuni  conjlatilis. 

(20)  Ex.  39'-^-28,  -ITC'ia   tt  -I2n   'p::p   nSI  ,  .  .  I'rr'l  (P),  "They  made  the 

mikhnese  habbadh  of  fine  linen."  LXX,  /cat  to.  irepicrKeX-^  [O,  ^a5]  f\- 
ptjffffov  KeKXcJcr/xivTjs.  V,  feminalia  quoque  linea,  byssina.  The  Targum 
Onkelos  has:    TUT  pD";  Kltin  'C:ra  -''T\'>,    Samaritan  Targum:   'r-IU? 

nnra  nb'ia  ^s  nnxar.    Pesh.  has  «::m  xjs^ns  (z.^.  wepi^uifia  ^(laaov). 

Targum  Onkelos,  in  Lev.  6*,  gives  the  plural  f"Dj2IS1. 

A.    THE   FORM    OF   THE   EPHOD. 
I.    Was  a  a  Garment? 

In  the  following  investigation,  the  word  ephod  will  refer  to  that 
which  was  in  use  before  the  Exile  ;  and  the  chronological  order  will 
be  observed  wherever  conducive  to  practical  results. 

As  the  narrative  in  2  Sa.  6"  has  been  already  referred  to,^  we  may 
begin  by  noting  the  conclusion  to  be  drawn  from  it ;  namely,  that  in 
spite  of  the  popular  view,  the  ephod  was  not  a  long  flowing  garment. 
David  admits  that  he  had  uncovered  himself  so  as  to  justify  Michal's 
censure,  had  it  not  been  before  Yahweh.  That  he  could  have  un- 
covered himself  still  more  shows  that  he  was  not  nude,  and  suggests 
the  idea  that  his  brief  covering  answered  the  purpose  of  a  loincloth. 
It  is  instructive  to  compare  the  post-exilic  account  of  this  event,  in 
I  Chr.  15,  and  note  that  the  scribe  thought  it  indecorous.  Hence 
he  "clothed"   David  with   a   "long   linen   robe,"^"   omitted  "ll^n 

25  Hieronymus,  XXIX.  ad  Marcellam :  In  Osee  .  .  .  pro  sacerdotio  et  manifes- 
tationibus,  in  Hebraeo  est,  sine  Ephod  et  sine  Teraphim  ;  sicut  Theod.  et  Sym. 
transtulerunt. 

2fi  nXJam,  instead  of  CnK!2t:i,  with  the  LXX,  and  in  harmony  with  "ECr  and 
D"!Tri.     For  an  extended  consideration  of  this  passage,  see  below,  p.  16  f. 
^2"  Cf.  Merx,  Chrestom.  Targum.  p.  214:  numquam  a  brevi  instruendum. 

28  Kohn,  Samar.  Stiidien,  Breslau,  1868,  p.  59,  commenting  on  "^X^L'  (in 
Ex.  30^*)  says :  Der  Ubersetzer  hat  "12  offenbar  gleich  dem  arab.  bdda,  "  weiss 
sein  "  genommen. 

29  See  above,  p.  6  f. 

8'  I  Chr.  1527,  pn  b'yaS  "^nira  may  be  an  intentional  alteration  of  ^"'^ 
mSXn,  Ex.  2831. 


12  JOURNAL    OF    BIBLICAL    LITERATURE. 

'  girded '  in  connection  with  the  ephod,  and,  apparently  to  justify 
Michal's  contempt,  substituted  for  *I2"15^  *  dancing,'  the  word  pPlt^tt 
'  playing,'  which  is  as  equivocal  ^^  in  Hebrew  as  in  English.  The 
episode  with  JNIichal  is  omitted. 

But  the  expression  in  2  Sa.  6",  " girded  with  an  ephodh  hadh" 
does  not  imply  a  garment.  David  does  not  %vear  it,  it  is  hung  about 
his  loins  by  a  girdle.  In  the  same  way  a  sword  is  girded  upon  the 
loins.  The  original  meaning  of  "l^H,  as  of  Arab,  hagara,  is  '  sur- 
round, enclose,'  etc. ;  hence  '  bind  on,'  and  also  '  prevent  access  to  ' ; 
whence  mijn  '  a  girdle,'  corresponding  to  higiir,  '  enclosure,  lap.' 
Now  mi^rt'''"  is  the  word  used  in  Gen.  3"  for  the  fig-leaf  covering 
made  by  Adam  and  .  Eve,  "  they  made  themselves  aprons,"  VC^^I 
rnin  Dn?.  The  margin  of  the  A.V.  calls  it  "  a  thing  to  gird  on." 
The  meaning  is  evidently  a  loincloth.  The  Fr.  gi'ron  has  the  mean- 
ing '  lap '  and  also  a  heraldic  design  of  triangular  shape,  like  a  primi- 
tive loincloth.''^  But  the  point  is  that  I^IPf  '  gird '  does  not  imply 
a  garment,  but  a  girding,  which  is  associated  with  the  waist  and 
loins. 

In  fact,  the  ephod  was  not  a  garment  at  all.  By  a  garment  is 
meant  something  that  is  worn  as  clothing  •  a  towel,  e.g.,  is  not  a 
garment,  though  a  waiter  may  carry  it  on  his  arm ;  nor  is  a  crown, 
although  it  is  said  to  be  worn.  By  referring  to  the  passages  bearing 
on  the  ephod,  it  will  be  seen  that  twice  the  ephod  is  associated 
with  teraphim,  which  proves  nothing.  Gideon's  ephod  is  "  put " 
in  his  city  Ophra.  The  ephod  at  Nob  was  on  the  wall,  or  floor, 
with  Goliath's  sword  wrapped  in  a  mantle  "  behind "  it.  When 
Abiathar  flees  to  join  David,  he  takes  the  Nob  ephod  "  in  his 
hand."  Three  times  the  ephod  is  "  brought  "  to  a  person  to  be 
used  in  divination.  These  passages  would  surely  not  suggest  a  gar- 
ment. But  there  are  three  other  passages,  where  one  might  point 
to  the  English  versions  as  showing  conclusiv'ely  that  a  garment  was 
meant,  for  in  each  case  the  translation  is  "  wearing  an  ephod."     The 


^1  Cf.  the  older  form  pr\1  in  Gen.  26^.  Professor  Haupt  has  kindly  pointed 
out  that  Arab,  ba  ala  III.  means  both  la  aha  and  jama' a  ;  ha'ala  is  a  denomina- 
tive verb  derived  from  ba' I,  'husband';  cf.  Trat^e  =  Sxffe  in  note  12  of  Haupt's 
paper  on  "  Ecclesiastes  "  in  the  Philadelphia  Oriental  Sttidics,  p.  265;  cf.  afso 
the  use  of  ludere  in  Hor.  Ep.  2,  2,  214;   and  "  play  "  in  Milton,  P.  L.  9,  1045. 

32  For  other  instances  of  the  use  of  "IJin  see  Ex.  12^^  Jud.  3^^  i  Ki.  20'^ 
2  Ki.  429  9I  Prov.  31 17  Is.  32I1  Ez.   if^  etc. 

33  For  a  photograph  of  such  a  loincloth,  see  Mission  Scientifiqne  dii  Cap  Horn, 
Hyades  et  Deniker  (Tome  VII.),  pi.  xii.,  Paris,  1891.    See  also  p.  42  below,  fig.  2. 


FOOTE :     THE    EPHOD. 

verb  that  is  translated  "  wearing  "  is  XtT]  '  bear ' ;  the  Greek  and 
Latin  have  atpw  and  portare.  But  there  are  no  instances  in  classical 
literature  of  al'/aw  or  portare  by  themselves,  meaning  to  wear  as  a 
garment ;  and  X*^'],  one  of  the  commonest  verbs  in  the  O.T.,  used 
perhaps  a  thousand  times,  never  has  the  meaning  '  wear,'  except  it 
be  made  for  these  three  places,  as  in  the  English  versions.  In  one 
of  these  places,  i  Sa.  22^'^,  St.  Jerome,  influenced,  it  may  be,  by  the 
word  in,  supposed  to  mean  '  linen,'  ^^  translates  vestitos  ephod  Imeo, 
but  there  is  no  reason  for  it,  since  the  Hebrew  and  Greek  are  the 
same.  Now  it  is  true  that  the  Century  Dictionary  says  that  one 
meaning  of  wear  is  '  carry ' ;  as,  e.g.,  country  people  will  advise  a 
person  to  wear  a  potato  in  the  pocket  to  keep  off  rheumatism ;  but 
the  converse  does  not  follow;  carry  never  means  'wear.'  These 
mistranslations  of  XvT]  by  the  English  "  wear  "  in  the  familiar  phrase 
"  wearing  an  ephod,"  together  with  the  anachronism  of  the  Priests' 
Code,  are  accountable  for  the  notion  that  the  ephod  is  essentially  a 
garment.*^ 

2.    JVas  the  Ephod  an  Idol? 

We  have  now  to  examine  the  passages  in  Judges,  i  Sa.  21^,  and 
Is.  30",  where  almost  all  critical  commentators  have  felt  constrained 
to  suppose  that  an  idol,  image,  agalma,  or  the  like,  is  meant.  A 
notable  exception  is  Professor  Wilhelm  Lotz,  of  Erlangen,  whose 
admirable  article  ^^  on  the  ephod  is  apparently  unknown  to  recent 
writers.  It  is,  of  course,  an  easy  way  of  escaping  a  difficulty  to  say, 
here  the  ephod  is  an  idol  and  here  it  is  a  garment,  but  it  is  unscien- 
tific. The  feeling  that  it  was  a  makeshift  has  given  rise  to  many 
curious  conjectures,  to  show,  if  possible,  some  connection  between 
the  idol  and  the  garment ;  and  so  the  theory  has  been  evolved  that 
the  ephod  is  the  covering  of  the  wooden  core  of  an  idol,  and  hence 
a  covering,  i.e.  a  garment.  Or,  working  in  the  other  direction,  it 
has  been  thought  that  the  ephod  was  a  priestly  garment  on  an  idol, 
and  then  identified  with  the  idol.     Some  have  grasped  eagerly  at 

"^*  Cf.  note  7  on  p.  3  above. 

^^  In  German  the  verb  tragen  may  translate  both  Kw"3  *  bear '  and  U'^b  '  wear.' 
This  fact  has  added  to  the  confusion,  since  by  the  expression  Ephodirager  no 
distinction  is  made  between  '  ephod-wearer'  and  '  ephod-bearer.'  Since  writing 
the  above  I  have  noticed  that  Professor  Moore  observes  that  Nw'2  does  not  mean 
'wear';    cf.  the  Internat.  Com.  on  Judges,  1895,  P-  S^^'  note. 

^  See  Kealencykloptrdie  fi'ir  prot.  Theologie  u.  Kirche,  third  edition,  vol.  v, 
Leipzig,  1898,  under  "Ephod." 


14  JOURNAL   OF    BIBLICAL    LITERATURE. 

the  apparent  distinction  between  ephodh  and  ephodh  badli,  making 
the  former  an  idol  and  the  latter  a  garment,  thus  throwing  the  diffi- 
culty of  unifying  the  two  back  upon  the  Hebrews  themselves.  But 
the  distinction  does  not  hold  good.  Others,  not  finding  any  distinc- 
tion in  the  Masoretic  text,  wish  to  make  one,  and,  as  Wellhausen, 
propose  to  point  112X  when  it  means  an  idol !  ^'  But  it  must  first 
be  determined  when  an  idol  is  meant.  If  the  LXX  is  any  criterion 
when  transHterations  are  used,  Gideon's  and  Micah's  ephod  would 
be  I'iSS!,  represented  by  ec^wS,  and  the  other  places  IISS!,  repre- 
sented by  ec^ouS.  But  those  who  understand  an  idol  always  take  it 
so  of  the  ephod  at  Nob,  where  the  Greek  has  shoulder  piece ;  and  so 
the  distinction  is  merely  due  to  different  translators  pointing  an 
unknown  word,  sometimes  T12X  and  sometimes  TlSS.  In  fact, 
they  are  all  forced  explanations,  arising  from  giving  undue  weight 
to  minor  details,  and  neglecting  the  fundamental  principle  that  a 
thing  is  what  it  is  used  for;  and  also  the  ethnological  axiom  that 
"  all  worships  that  contain  heathenish  elements  are  traditional,  and 
nothing  is  more  foreign  to  them  than  the  introduction  of  forms  for 
which  there  is  no  precedent  of  usage."  ^  If  the  ephod  is  an  article 
of  clothing,  then  it  is  a  garment  and  is  worn ;  if  it  is  to  represent 
a  deity,  then  it  is  an  idol  and  is  worshipped  ;  but  if,  being  neither 
of  these,  it  is  connected  with  sacred  lots,  then  it  is  a  means  of  con- 
sulting an  oracle  and  is  divined  with.  It  is  hard  to  discard  the 
notion  of  the  garment-ephod,  but  it  is  based  solely  on  mistranslations 
arising  from  preconceived  ideas,  and  the  same  is  the  case  with  the 
notion  that  the  ephod  was  an  idol.  The  expressions  upon  which 
the  idea  of  the  idol-ephod  is  based  are  the  following  from  Jud.  '&^' , 
mssb  p:J"[3'  imS  '^T\  "  Gideon  made  an  ephod  of  it  "  (cf.  above 
p.  8,  No.  i).  This  cannot  be  forced  to  mean  that  all  the  gold  went 
into  the  ephod  —  imS  refers  as  much  to  the  purple  raiment  as  to 
the  gold  ornaments  —  probably  but  a  small  fraction  became  the 
material  of  the  ephod  (if,  indeed,  any  of  it  did  !),  as  this  very  con- 
densed statement  seems  to  cover  much  more  than  is  expressed  ;  for 
instance,  the  cost  of  making,  the  cost  of  the  shrine,  etc.,  imX  H_'1 
m2V3  n^VS,  "and  put  it  in  his  city  Ophra."  This  verb  is  usually 
translated  '  set  up,'  as  though  it  had  no  other  meaning ;  but  it  also 
signifies  '  put '  or  '  place,'  as  in  Jud.  6'^"  Gideon  says,  "  Behold,"  "'^jX 
T^t2,  "  I  will  put  a  fleece  of  wool  on  the  threshing  floor."     This 

3'  See  Geschichte  Israels,  Berlin,  1S83,  p.  95. 

•^*  Robertson  Smith,  O.  T.  in  the  Jewish  Church,  18S1,  p.  228. 


FOOTE :     THE    EPHOD.  1 5 

verb  may  mean  simply  to  '  leave '  somewhere,  as  in  Gen.  33^',  nriJX 
K3  "  Let  me  now  leave  some  of  the  people  with  thee."  One  might 
as  pertinently  argue  that  the  Ark  was  an  idol,  because  2  Sa.  6'^ 
reads  IHK  132^111,  as  to  force  the  expression  in  the  case  of  the  ephod.'' 
D^  innX  bxn^r^  h^  i:ri,  "  all  Israel  went  astray  after  it  there." 
Without  this  comment,  it  is  unlikely  that  the  notion  of  an  idol-ephod 
would  ever  have  been  evolved.  The  verb  zandh,  in  this  use,  occurs 
eighteen  times,  and  is  usually  followed  by  "  after  "  strange  gods,  gods 
of  the  heathen,  or  idols,  also  "  from  "  the  true  God.  But  the  phrase 
can  also  be  used  of  seeking  "  after  a  man,"  and  "  unto  those  having 
familiar  spirits,"  Lev.  20'*-,  and  even  "  after  whatever  pleases  the 
eyes,"  Nu.  15^^.  This  expression,*^  then,  does  not  always  mean  an 
idol,  and  hence  it  cannot  be  pressed  in  this  particular  instance,  to 
imply  an  idol.  On  the  contrary,  one  might  argue  that  Jud.  8^  was 
conclusive  evidence  that  in  verse  27  it  means  something  different, 
for  "  as  soon  as  Gideon  was  dead,"  the  Israelites  again  went  astray 
after  Baalim,  implying  that  when  he  was  alive  he  had  kept  them 
from  idolatry.  But  why  may  not  the  phrase  '^"in>5  H]!  refer  to  a 
lot-oracle,  as  may  also  be  the  case  in  Hos.  4^-  (cf.  below,  p.  36)  ? 
This  phrase,  however,  probably  represents  a  later  editorial  comment ; 
the  original  narrative,  it  is  agreed,  had  no  criticism  to  make  on 
Gideon's  ephod.'*^  But  a  narrative  that  has  been  added  to  is 
likely  to  be  inconsistent.  Professor  Moore,  of  Harvard,  has  sug- 
gested as  possible  that  ephod  has  supplanted  a  word  like  eloliim.  If 
so,  it  is  easy  to  account  for  the  condemnatory  comment,  but  it  is 
hard  to  see  how  ephod  could  have  been  substituted  and  the  comment 
allowed  to  stand,  in  an  age  when  the  ephod  was  unquestionably 
revered.  But  the  point  is  that  the  phrase  in  question  does  not  prove 
an  idol,  but  may  only  refer  to  a  popular  craze  for  some  unapproved 
use  of  divination. 

Again,  if  we  pass  to  Jud.  17  and  18,  Micah  makes  an  ephod  and 
teraphim.     There  seems  to  be  a  double  strand  in  the  narrative,  one 

^^  Professor  Moore,  in  Liternaiional  Corn,  fiufges,  1895,  P-  379'  renders  'set 
up,'  and  makes  it  a  proof  along  with  the  next  phrase,  that  the  ephod  was  "  clearly 
an  idol  of  some  kind."  He  concludes  that  this  verse,  Jud.  8-',  "  imperatively 
requires  this  interpretation." 

••"*  For  an  extended  examination  of  the  phrase  zdiidh  axre,  see  my  paper  in  the 
Journal  of  the  American  Oriental  Society,  vol.  xxii.,  pp.  64-69. 

^1  In  Chronicon  Hebr.,  1699,  p.  407,  ViPtX  in  this  passage  is  interpreted  to 
mean  after  him,  i.e.  after  Gideon''s  death  ;  when  the  Israelites  took  the  amiciilum 
and  used  it  in  idolatry. 


1 6  JOURNAL    OF    Bir.LICAL    LITERATURE. 

part  of  which  tells  of  the  making  of  a  HDEipi  T'CS,  "  a  graven  and 
a  molten  image,"  and  commentators  have  tried  to  establish  a  parallel 
between  them  and  the  ephod  and  teraphim  of  the  other  strand  of 
the  narrative.  Moore,  however,  ingeniously  eUminates  the  HwElS,''^ 
showing  that  the  apparent  parallel  gives  no  ground  for  thinking 
Micah's  ephod  an  image.  Canon  Driver  is  certainly  right  in  styling 
Micah's  ephod  and  teraphim  "instruments  of  divination."  ■*" 

Again,  in  i  Sa.  21^'-,  where  it  is  said  that  the  sword  of  Goliath  was 
wrapped  in  a  mantle  "  behind  the  ephod,"  it  is  commonly  held  to 
mean  that  the  ephod  must  have  stood  free  from  the  wall  in  order  to 
have  the  sword  behind  it,  thus  suggesting  an  idol ;  but,  as  Lotz  points 
out  (cf.  above,  p,  13),  it  is  much  more  likely  that  the  sword  was 
a  trophy  or  votive  offering,  cine  Art  Wcihgcschcnk,  and  was  hanging 
from  some  large  peg,  upon  which,  when  not  in  use,  the  ephod  also 
was  hung.  He  concludes  :  To  decide  from  this  passage  that  the 
ephod  is  a  statue  standing  clear  of  the  wall,  an  image  of  Yahweh,  is 
incorrect. 

Finally,  there  are  other  commentators  and  scholars  from  Michaelis 
and  Vatke,  who  is  very  sure,  to  Duhm,  Smend,  Gesenius-Buhl,  Marti, 
and  Budde,  who  considers  it  "very  questionable,"  who  hold  a  theory 
that  the  ephod  was  a  '  covering,  garment,'  or  '  mask '  of  an  idol  and 
so  practically  identified  with  it.  The  theory  that  12S  meant  origi- 
nally 'to  cover'  is  based  on  Is.  30-  (cf.  above,  p.  11,  No.  19),  which 
remains  to  be  considered.  It  reads  as  follows  :  *'\ti*l  nX  <n)XI2I01 
'T\  Cnn  "[Dm  HDES:  rr\ti^  rii^l  "|£D3  ^b-DS,  "Thou  shalt 
defile  the  silver  plating  of  thy  images  and  thy  molten  gold  band ; 
thou  shalt  scatter  them,"  etc.  Comparing  the  Greek  and  Latin 
versions,  it  will  be  seen  that  the  Latin  is  simply  Hebrew  in  Latin 
words  with  an  epexegetical  rendering  of  niEX  by  vestimcntum. 
The  Greek,  however,  is  a  translation,  treating  the  Hebrew  idiom 
in  the  first  half  as  an  instance  of  synecdoche.  It  can  hardly  be 
regarded  otherwise  than  as  a  rhetorical  figure,  where  the  silver 
plating  and  the  molten  gold  band  of  the  D''7'^D2  are  put  for  the 
images  themselves.  To  think  with  Duhm,  that  the  writer  is  making 
a  special  point  of  the  outward  decoration  of  the  images,  is  to  over- 
look the  evident  condemnation  of  idols,  not  merely  their  adorning. 
Cast  away  the  ''122C  and  you  still  have  the  7DS.  It  seems  unlikely 
that  n2D^  is  parallel  with  '''^'03,  for  one  would  surely  expect  DiDD, 

*2  See  Internat.  Com.  fudges,  1895,  p.  375  f. 
*8  See  LOT.,  7th  ed.,  1898,  p.  168. 


foote:    tH^^ho^;      ^^^  17 


and  so  the  English  versions  have  tacitly  rendered  it.  But  the  chief 
difficulty  is  that  DDuJi  never  means  '  molten  image,'  when,  as  here, 
it  is  a  genitive.  It  means  a  '  casting,'  and  as  a  genitive  it  means 
that  the  iw/iien  regens  is  not  carved,  nor  beaten,  but  cast.  IT^ES  is 
the  regular  feminine  of  TIDS,  and  HSStt  n'lESI  means  a  '  cast  band,' 
just  as  n2C!!3  'T'^V  is  a  'cast  calf,'  and  H-EXS  ^^'T'^5  'cast  gods.' 
The  parallelism  is  between  "'ISiC  ami  mSX,  the  '  ornaments '  of  the 
D  v'^DD ;  and  there  is  no  rule  that  requires  parallel  expressions  to  be 
synonyms  in  more  than  one  sense.  The  two  things  are  ornaments  ; 
it  is  not  necessary  that  they  should  both  be  coverings,  nor  of  the 
same  material.  But  the  ''1211  was  not  a  covering  like  a  garment,  but 
apparently  a  decoration  of  an  image  made  with  silver  leaf, —  some- 
thing to  make  it  shine.  The  aphuddah  ^  was  like  it  inasmuch  as  it 
was  an  ornament,  a  gold  band,  whether  as  a  loincloth  or  belt  it  is 
impossible  to  say  ;  perhaps  it  was  the  ancient  ephod.  Hence  there 
is  nothing  here  on  which  to  base  a  theory  that  the  ephod  was  an  idol. 

These,  then,  are  the  passages  that  are  claimed  for  an  idol-ephod, 
and  all  of  them,  as  has  been  shown,  are  patient  of  a  quite  different 
interpretation.  It  is  possible  to  grant  that  they  may  be  understood 
of  an  idol,  if  this  fact  were  assured  beforehand  ;  but  to  ground  a 
theory  on  them  that  is  inconsistent  with  passages  better  understood, 
is  unscientific. 

But  if  the  ephod  was  not  an  idol,  neither  was  it  a  gold  covering  of 
a  wooden  core.  This  distinction  belongs  more  to  craftsmen  than 
to  critics ;  for  what  worshipper  in  gazing  at  such  an  idol  (for  idol 
it  would  be)  could  distinguish  between  the  inner  core  and  the  outer 
covering?  There  is  no  doubt  that  wooden  kernels  were  overlaid  with 
gold  and  silver,  as  in  Baruch  6''',  but  they  were  idols  not  ephods. 
Etymologically  nothing  is  gained,  for  the  denominative  from  ephod 
is  not  '  to  cover  '  but  '  to  bind.'  Another  theory  has  been  advanced 
by  Duhm,^^  that  the  ephod  was  the  mask  of  the  idol,  which  was  worn 
by  the  priest  in  consulting  the  oracle.     But  the  girding  of  the  ephod 

*^  The  derived  meaning  of  mSK,  'binding,'  from  "i'SS  (see  below,  p.  45),  is 
confirmed  by  the  lateness  of  this  verse,  which,  by  Duhm  (cf.  Marti),  is  placed  as 
late  even  as  the  second  century  B.C.  It  is  apparently  a  misplaced  verse,  as  it  does 
not  accord  with  the  context,  which  is  improved  in  point  of  coherency  by  omitting 
it.  Perhaps  it  belongs  after  Is.  31*',  where  it  harmonizes  with  the  context.  The 
interpolation  of  passages  referring  to  idols  is  not  uncommon  in  Isaiah,  as  Professor 
Haupt  has  pointed  out  in  his  reconstruction  of  Is.  40;  see  V)xVigvX\r{%  Marksteine, 
Leipzig,  1902;   cf.  Is.  4o'9-2o  416-'?  44^'-'^  4'^'^"^. 

*5  Das  Buck  Jesaia,  1892,  on  30'-'-. 


1 8  JOURNAL    OF    BIBLICAL    LITERATURE. 

was  not  over  the  eyes,  but  about  the  loins  (cf.  above,  p.  12).  Again, 
to  escape  the  idol-epliod,  if  possible,  the  theory  has  been  advanced, 
most  recently  by. Marti,  that  the  ephod  was  a  gold  or  cloth  garment 
hung  upon  an  idol.  That  this  was  customary  among  the  Hebrews 
is  not  clear,  but  for  other  Semitic  peoples,  see  Baruch  6''^.  Granting 
the  fact,  however,  how  can  it  be  shown  that  the  garment  was  the 
chief,  and  the  idol  the  inferior,  object  in  the  cult?  If  people  were 
led  into  idolatry  by  an  idol  with  a  garment  on  it,  it  certainly  was  not 
due  to  the  garment  !  This  theory  starts  with  the  idea  that  the  ephod 
was  a  garment.  It  is  consistent,  but  the  starting-point  is  wrong. 
The  ephod  is  an  instrument  of  divination. 

B.    THE   USE  OF  THE   EPHOD. 

Important  as  is  the  light  thrown  upon  an  unknown  object  by  its 
context  and  environment,  it  is  altogether  inferior  to  that  which  comes 
from  a  knowledge  of  its  use.  In  about  half  the  passages  cited  for 
the  ephod  there  is  nothing  to  suggest  a  use.  To  say  that  the  ephod 
had  always  a  religious  significance  is  not  to  point  out  a  use.  To  say 
that  "bearing  an  ephod"  is  almost  synonymous  with  priest  is  true, 
but  it  does  not  tell  what  the  ephod  was  for.  It  does,  however,  enable 
us  to  draw  a  reasonable  inference,  that,  as  one  of  the  chief  duties, 
if  not  the  foremost  duty,  of  a  priest  ■"'  in  the  time  of  the  Judges  was 
to  obtain  divine  oracles,  so  the  ephod,  his  constant  companion,  was 
used  in  divination.  Some  travelling  Danites  (Jud.  18^")  learn  that 
Micah  has  an  ephod  and  teraphim,  and  immediately  desire  to  con- 
sult the  oracle.  On  a  subsequent  migration,  they  carry  off  for  their 
own  use,  priest,  ephod,  and  teraphim.  David,  during  his  flight  from 
Saul,  is  accompanied  by  the  priest  Abiathar ;  and  on  two  occasions, 
I  Sa.  23^  30^,  it  is  recorded  that  he  said  to  the  priest  TlSSH  nt-'^^n, 
"  Bring  me  the  ephod."  '"^     Abiathar  brought  the  ephod,  and  David 

^'^  In  ancient  Israel,  religious  functions  were  not  restricted  to  a  special  order 
of  men  (cf.  below,  p.  41,  n.  103),  but  every  man  was  free  to  offer  sacrifice  or  obtain 
oracles  by  the  use  of  lots.  Later  the  oracular  function  was  restricted  to  a  particu- 
lar order,  and  ephod-bearer  became  synonymous  with  priest.  The  Hebrew  fnS, 
priest,  is  the  Arabic  kdhin,  '  foreteller.'  Later  still  the  function  of  sacrifice  was 
taken  over  to  the  priests,  and  the  oracular  function,  at  least  in  theory,  was 
restricted  to  the  high  priest.  For  a  similar  change  among  the  Incas  of  Peru,  see 
Reville,  Hibbert  Lectures,  1884,  p.  230  f. 

*^  Bertheau,  Das  Buck  der  Richter  unci  Ruth,  Leipzig,  1883,  p.  163,  says: 
"  The  demand  of  David, '  Bring  the  ephod,'  means  the  same  as  '  Consult  Yahweh.' 
But  it  is  David  who  consults  Yahweh.     The  words  are  plain  enough,  and  there 


FOOTE :     THE   EPHOD.  1 9 

inquired  of  Yahweh.  In  both  instances  the  answer  David  receives  is 
what  one  might  get  by  drawing  lots.  In  addition  to  these  passages, 
there  is  a  similar  one  in  i  Sa.  14^*,  which  will  be  considered  later, 
where  Saul  says  to  the  priest  Ahijah,  "  Bring  the  ephod,"  and  appar- 
ently consults  the  oracle  as  David  did.  Now  three  such  indisputable 
instances,  where  the  action  has  every  appearance  of  being  quite 
customary,  seem  to  establish  the  point  that  the  ephod  is  directly 
connected  with  divination.  Of  course,  it  is  understood  that  there 
is  nothing  in  any  other  passage  bearing  on  the  ephod  to  oppose  this 
conclusion.  One  other  passage  may  be  noted  in  this  connection. 
In  I  Sa.  28",  where  Samuel's  spirit  is  brought  up  to  be  consulted  by 
Saul,  as  in  his  lifetime,  he  comes  up,  according  to  a  variant  of  the 
LXX,''^  with  an  ephod  about  him. 

To  discover  what  purpose  the  ephod  served  in  divination,  some 
consideration  must  be  given  to  that  subject.  By  divination  is  meant, 
foretelling  events  by  means  that  are  direcdy  influenced  by  supernatural 
power.  Among  the  ancients,  the  means  used  were  legion ;  but  among 
the  Hebrews  hardly  more  than  three  kinds  were  practised,  - —  div'ina- 
tion  by  clairvoyance,  by  dreams,  and  by  lot.  The  first  was  the  office 
of  the  seer ;  the  last,  at  least  in  the  early  days,  that  of  the  priest. 
For  the  purposes  of  this  investigation,  it  is  necessary  to  consider  only 
divination  by  lot.'*^  The  point  to  be  determined  is  how  the  ephod 
was  used  in  divining  by  lot.  In  the  performance  of  this  function, 
only  two  things,  apparently,  were  indispensable  :  the  sacred  lots  and 
some  receptacle  in  which  they  were  placed.  The  ephod  may  have 
been  such  a  receptacle.  Its  association  with  I^H  '  gird '  suggests  an 
apron  from  which  the  lots  were  cast,  or  a  bag  or  pouch  girded  about 
the  loins.  To  determine  which  of  these  the  ephod  was,  it  is  neces- 
sary to  know  how  lots  were  used. 

is  no  suggestion  of  technical  language.  The  expression  is  verlially  varied  in  30', 
where  'v  shows  that  David  wanted  the  ephod  to  use.  If  Abiathar  had  carried 
David's  mouchoir  (in  modern  Hebrew  TlIC  =  smiariu;ii),  he  might  have  asked 
for  it  in  the  same  way  (cf.  2  Ki.  4"),  with  the  addition  of  the  suffix  of  the  first 
person." 

*^  The  reading  of  this  variant,  of  uncertain  origin,  is  a.v7)p  irpeff^vrepos  dvalBai- 
vuv,  Kal  avTos  TrepiiieliX-q/xevos  ecpovS.  But  even  supposing  the  Hebrew  ~"EK  niiU 
instead  of  b'L'Ji,  the  verb  Hul.',  which  is  never  used  with  ~"£K,  would  go  far  to 
condemn  the  reading. 

■**  The  expression  divination  by  lot  is  used  without  regard  to  the  nature  of  the 
lot,  and  therefore  includes  arrows  and  rods,  but  does  not  include  dice,  which  were 
not  used  as  sacred  lots  (cf.  below,  p.  25). 


20  JOURNAL    OF    lillJLICAL    LITERATURE. 

I.   The  Connection  of  the  Ephod  zuith  Divination. 

It  has  been  noted  that  there  was  not  among  the  Hebrews  that 
diversity  in  the  methods  of  divination  that  obtained  among  the 
Greeks  and  Romans  and  also  other  Semitic  peoples.'"  Apart  from 
the  office  of  the  seer,  and  ambiguous  allusions  to  the  rod  and  to 
teraphim,  the  method  was  always  casting  lots.  There  is  no  doubt 
that  in  early  times  as  well  as  much  later,  the  Hebrews  constantly 
sought  the  will  of  God  by  lots.  In  order  to  use  such  means,  it  is 
necessary  to  have  some  receptacle  in  which  the  lots  are  placed. 
From  the  passages  already  examined,  it  has  been  inferred  that  the 
ephod,  whether  of  gold  or  cloth,  was  such  a  receptacle.  It  could  be 
carried  about  by  the  priest  or  girded  upon  the  loins  for  use. 

Tlie  fact  that  the  ephod  was  girded  upon  the  loins  seems  to  indi- 
cate that  both  hands  must  be  free  to  use  it,  and  suggests  the  idea 
that  lots  were  drawn  out  of  it.  An  examination  has  been  made  of 
all  the  statements  in  regard  to  the  use  of  lots,  to  determine  whether 
they  were  drawn  or  cast ;  for  this  point  is  essential  in  forming  an 
idea  of  the  shape  of  the  ephod.  There  is,  in  fact,  but  one  passage 
which  gives  any  hint  as  to  hoiu  the  ephod  was  used —  i  Sa.  14''*'-", 
which  may  be  assigned  to  a  time  prior  to  800  B.C.  and  may  be  a 
contemporary  account.  The  text  is  corrupt,  but  can  be  restored 
from  the  Versions  (cf.  above,  p.  9).  The  previous  narrative  tells 
how  Jonathan  and  his  armor-bearer  had  put  the  PhiUstines  to  rout, 
causing  a  great  tumult  which  was  noticed  by  Saul's  watchmen  at 
Gibeah  of  Benjamin.  Saul  at  once  assembled  the  people,  and  found 
that  Jonathan  and  his  armor-bearer  were  missing.  Thereupon  he 
said  to  the  priest  Ahijah,  "  Bring  the  ephod."  While  Saul  was  speak- 
ing with  the  priest,  the  tumult  in  the  Philistine  camp  burst  out  anew 
and  grew  louder  and  louder.  At  this  point  there  is  a  break  in  the 
narrative,  and  a  blank  space  in  the  text  (p1D2  !,'1£(-X3  SpD£)  '''  — 
possibly  indicating  a  lacuna  —  then  Saul  said  to  the  priest,  "Take 

^^  See  Haupt's  "  Babylonian  Elements  in  the  Levitical  Ritual,"  in  vul.  xix 
of  JBL.,  p.  56. 

^1  This  Masoretic  note,  of  course,  means  only  that  there  was  a  break  in  the 
middle  of  the  verse,  caused  by  a  defect  in  the  surface  written  on,  or  quite  possibly 
by  illegibility  of  writing  or  an  erasure,  in  the  archetype  from  which  all  subse- 
quent copies  of  the  O.T.  are  derived  (cf.  W.  R.  Smith,  O.T.  in  Jeiv.  Church, 
2d  ed.,  p.  56;  Lagarde,  Mitthcil.,  I.,  19  ff.,  cf.  Gesenius-Kautzsch,  §  3,  c,').  It 
is  the  lack  of  connection  with  what  follows  that  suggests  a  lacuna.  One  would 
expect  the  priests'  answer  in  the  negative,  which  Saul  characteristically  refused 
to  accept. 


FOOTE :     THE    EPHOD.  21 

out  thy  hands." ^-  Thereupon  Saul  called  out ^^ to  attack:  the  people 
with  him  took  up  the  shout  and  they  came  to  the  battle.  The  inter- 
est in  the  narrative  for  this  investigation  centres  in  the  words  of  Saul 
to  the  priest,  "Take  away"  or  "withdraw  thy  hand,"  or  "hands," 
if  we  adopt  the  plural  of  the  Greek  ;  the  Hebrew  may  be  read  either 
way.  These  words,  as  a  rule,  are  interpreted  to  mean  that  Saul, 
naturally  impatient,  told  the  priest  to  cease  consulting  the  oracle. 
Thenius,  for  instance,  says,  " '  Withdraw  thy  hand,'  i.e.  let  it  be  ;  we 
will  not  draw  lots."  That  this  exegesis  is  not  satisfactory  is  shown 
by  the  emphasis  which  commentators  place  upon  Saul's  natural 
impatience.  He  would  not  wait  for  Samuel  on  one  occasion  ;  but 
his  impatience  on  this  occasion  was  not  so  much  due  to  temperament 
as  to  the  bleating  of  the  sheep  !  On  the  other  hand,  Saul  was  like 
the  men  of  Athens,  in  all  things  too  superstitious  to  take  any  step 
without  using  divination,  and  when  by  ordinary  means  he  could 
obtain  no  favorable  answer,  he  must  have  recourse  to  witchcraft. 
Other  commentators,  again,  explain  the  passage  by  an  inference 
drawn  from  it  in  this  way  :  if  Saul  did  not  wait  to  consult  the  oracle, 
it  must  have  been  very  complicated  and  long,  says  Benzinger ;  ^ 
another  commentator  quotes  Benzinger  to  the  effect  that  the  con- 
sultation of  the  ephod  w-as  a  long  process,  and  this  is  the  reason  Saul 
did  not  wait.  But  if  the  ephod  was  not  a  magical  affair,  as  almost 
all  the  modern  commentators  vaguely  imply,  but  merely  an  apron 
from  which  the  lots  were  cast,  or  a  pouch  intc^  which  the  priest  put 
his  hands  and  drew  the  lots,  the  simplest  explanation  is  that  Saul 
was  in  a  hurry  to  attack  the  Philistines,  and  said  to  the  priest,  "  Take 
thy  hands  out,"  in  order  that  he  might  know  the  decision  of  the 
oracle.  In  regard  to  the  answer  given  by  the  lot-oracle,  it  is  possible 
that  in  i  Sa.  28''  we  should  translate  in3>  S^  "  did  not  give  a  favor- 
able answer,"  instead  of  "answered  him  not."  The  verse  will  then 
read,  "  When  Saul  inquired  of  Yahweh,  Yahweh  did  not  give  him 

'•'-  '^T  ^bX;  LXX,  'Lvva.-^a.'ie  ras  x^^'P'^s  '^°v-  T^'  is  probably  written  defec- 
tive for  "I'"^"»  ^s  ""n,  'thy  ways,'  for  ~'-"n,  in  Ex.  -^-^^  Jos.  i*  Ps.  119*";  also 
D2T  for  C2"T  in  Ps.  134-;  cf.  Ges.-Kautzsch,  §91,-^.  '^CN,  'withdraw,'  though 
the  ordinary  meaning  is  '  gather  ' ;  Jt  is  used  of  Jacob  '  drawing '  his  feet  into  bed, 
and  also  being  'taken'  to  his  people.  Gen.  49'-';  it  has  the  meaning  'to  take 
away'  in  Is.  16I"  57^  60^'  Jer.  48'^*  Hos.  4*  Joel  2^''  31^. 

^^  py*'!  I'nay  be  read  py"''  with  V,  condamavit,  and  frequently  LXX,  (j36rja£. 

^*  I/e/\  Archaologie,  p.  408.  But  he  continues  quite  rightly :  "  if  one  had  to 
exclude  by  a  series  of  questions  the  different  possibilities,  as  this  is  very  clearly 
represented  in  i  Sa.  logoff-."  It  was,  however,  a  simple  matter  when  but  one 
question  was  put. 


^'    or  THE 

VJNIVERSITV    , 


22  JOURNAL   OF    BIBLICAL    LITERATURE. 

a  favorable  answer/"  either  by  dreams,  or  by  Uriin,  or  by  Prophets." 
It  is  evident  that  Saul  tried  one  method  of  divination  and  then 
another,  and  finally  resorted  to  witchcraft.  It  seems  impossible  that 
the  use  of  the  sacred  lots  should  give  no  answer  at  all,  though  tradi- 
tion probably  allowed  but  one  use  of  them  in  a  single  inquiry.  In 
the  present  case,  Saul  presumably  received  a  favorable  answer. 
This  seems  a  satisfactory  glimpse  of  the  ephod  in  use,  and  the  con- 
clusion drawn  from  it  would  be  that  the  ephod  was  a  receptacle  into 
which  the  hands  are  put  to  draw  the  lots. 

But  as  lots  are  almost  always  spoken  of  as  cast,  the  question  arises 
whether  in  antiquity  the  custom  of  drawing  lots  ever  obtained. 
There  are  ten  verbs  in  Hebrew  which  are  used  in  connection  with 
lots  in  the  O.T.  They  are  :  sr,  nSm,  h't'V,  ^n:,  b^lSH,  S^SH, 
'7S3,  n'^Tw'Tl,  ■^"^^  and  m^.  Seven  of  them  mean  'to  cast,  throw, 
let  fall '  ;  while  three  signify  '  to  come  up '  and  '  out,'  as  from  a 
shaken  receptacle.  These  verbs  seem  to  show  that  among  the 
ancient  Hebrews,  at  least,  lots  were  not  drawn,  but  cast.  Among 
the  Romans,  also,  the  common  expression  is  "  to  cast  lots."  Cicero, 
however,  mentions,  as  if  nothing  unusual,  that  the  oracular  lots  in 
the  temple  of  Fortuna  at  Praeneste  were  mingled  and  drawn  by  a 
child.  Quid  igitiir  in  his  \_sortibiis\  potest  esse  certi,  quae  Fortunae 
vionitu  pueri  manu  niiscentur  atque  ducuntur:'^  On  the  other  hand, 
in  the  Iliad,  HI.  316  ff".,  we  read  that  Hector  shakes  the  lots  in  a 
helmet  with  an  up  and  down  motion,^'  with  averted  face  to  prevent 
any  suspicion  of  partiality,  and  the  lot  of  Paris  quickly  leaped  forth.^ 
In  the  same  way  the  ephod,  if  it  were  originally  a  loincloth  as  has 
been  suggested  (cf.  above,  p.  7),  would  furnish  a  lap  from  which 
the  lots  could  be  cast.  That  the  shaking  of  the  lap  was  to  some 
extent  a  familiar  action,  is  seen  from  Neh.  5'^,  "I  shook  out  my  lap, 
saying,  so  God  shake  out  every  man  from  his  house."  But  in  Prov.  16^ 
we  read  : 

*5  Professor  Haupt  has  shown,  in  BELR.,  note  47  (see  JBL.,  1900, 1.),  that 
ii;i',  when  indicating  the  answer  to  an  oracle,  technically  means  the  favorable 
answer. 

^  De  Diviitatione,  II.  41,  86. 

5'  Professor  Gildersleeve  kindly  suggested  to  me  that  the  motion  was  indicated 
by  the  verb  irdWeiv  which  is  used  of  Hector  dandling  his  little  son. 

^^  (li%  S.p  i<pav,  irdWev  5k  fiiyas  KopvdaioXos   EKTwp 
5.\j/  bpbuv   Yidpios  bk  doGi^  iK  xXr^pos  6povcr€v. 

I  have  to  thank  Professor  Haupt  for  the  additional  references  :  Sophocles,  Electra, 
710;    Alcman,  fragment  63,  11.  24,  400;    15,  191;    Herod.  3,  128. 


FOOTE :     THE    EPHOD.  2$ 

The  lot  is  cast  in  the  lap, 

But  the  whole  disposing  thereof  is  of  the  Lord. 

Evidently  the  verse  does  not  fit  the  theory  of  casting  out  of  \\\q.  lap. 
The  word  p'^H  [see  Note  C],  rendered  '  lajD  '  in  this  verse,  is  ambigu- 
ous. The  English  word  associated  with  it  is  '  bosom/  as  also  with 
sinus  and  koAttos.  But  it  is  quite  misleading  to  translate  p^PI  by 
'  bosom.'  It  is  true  that  bosom  has  a  wide  range  of  meanings,  but 
the  universal  significance  of  the  word  when  used  alone  is  that  part 
of  the  body  where  the  heart  is  ;  and  this,  it  may  safely  be  said,  |Tn 
never  means.  It  would  be  impossible  for  us  to  say,  "  My  reins  are 
consumed  within  my  bosom,"  and  in  Job  19"'  iTH  evidently  refers 
to  the  abdominal  cavity  including  the  liver  and  intestines,  the  seat 
of  the  affections  among  the  ancients,  which  we  associate  with  the 
heart,  and  the  upper  or  thoracic  cavity  of  the  body.  This  is  respon- 
sible for  the  confusion  in  the  rendering  of  p^H,  and  the  same  exists 
in  regard  to  sinus  and  koXtto^.  'Bosom'  or  '  heart '  is  a  legitimate 
translation  so  long  as  they  are  used  merely  for  the  abstract  idea  of 
affection ;  but  when  the  ancient  seat  of  the  passions  had  given  rise 
to  a  whole  sphere  of  associations  with  that  part  of  the  body  about 
the  loins  and  waist,  such  a  translation  as  '  bosom  '  is  entirely  mis- 
leading. In  sinus  and  ko'Attos  the  original  idea  seems  to  be  that  of 
bulging,  protuberance,  etc.,  hence  the  part  of  the  body  containing  the 
viscera;  then  the  folds  of  a  garment  where  it  hangs  over  the  girdle ; 
whence  the  lap,  a  place  of  concealment,  a  pocket ;  and  even  a  con- 
cave surface,  bowl,  urn.  The  etymology  of  TST\  is  not  clear,  but  its 
meanings  have  developed  on  the  same  lines.  Hence  when  we  read, 
"The  lot  is  cast  in  the  p^H,"  the  reference  is  not  necessarily  to  the 
lap  of  a  garment,  but  more  likely  to  a  pouch  or  urn.  But  this,  again, 
does  not  accord  with  the  verbs  which  seem  to  mean  'cast  out  of,'  as 
Hector  cast  the  lot  out  of  the  helmet. 

The  word  that  is  almost  invariably  used  in  general  reference  to  lot 
casting  is  7m3  '  lot.'  The  7113  is  originally  a  pebble,  thus  suggest- 
ing that  lots  were  commonly  small  and  round.  They  may  have  been 
black  and  white,  or  inscribed  with  some  symbol.  In  Lev.  i6'*'^,  Aaron 
casts  lots  for  the  scape-goat :  mSia  D"i;';rn  ^7^  bi:  |1nS  iDII  and 
b"n:n  rS:?  rh^  ItrX  "l^!?t'n.  instead  of  rendering  with  the  R.V., 
"Aaron  shall  cast  lots  upon  the  tivo  goats,  and  the  goat  upon 
which  the  lot  fell,"  it  is  better  to  read,  "  Aaron  put  the  lots  for  the 


24  JOURNAL    OF    BIBLICAL    LITERATURE. 

two  goats  into  some  receptacle,  and  the  goat  upon  7uhich  the  lot 
came  iip^''  plainly  referring  to  a  receptacle  answering,  perhaps,  to 
the  helmet  of  Hector. 

But  in  the  Talmudic  tract  Yoma  (XX2V),  4,  i,  the  whole  matter  is 
put  in  a  different  light.  Here  we  read,  "  The  high  priest  put  his 
hands  into  the  urn  and  took  out  two  lots ;  upon  one  was  written  For 
Yahweh,  and  upon  the  other  was  written  For  Azazeiy'^'^  Evidently 
this  was  the  traditional  custom  of  drawing  lots.  The  word  for  '  urn,' 
^^y>_  or  ''27p,  seems  to  be  the  late  Greek  KaXirr},  possibly  akin  to 
koAttos.  something  hollowed  out.  The  Gemarah  explains  that  the 
*'5!7p  '  urn  '  was  made  of  wood,  but  on  one  occasion  a  man  had 
become  renowned  by  making  one  of  gold  ;  that  the  high  priest 
snatched  the  lots  out  quickly  so  as  not  to  feel  of  them ;  that  the  lot 
which  was  drawn  in  the  right  hand  was  for  the  goat  which  was  near 
his  right  side,  and  it  was  considered  a  happy  augury  when  the  right 
hand  held  the  lot  inscribed  mn'^'^. 

The  Talmudic  tract  Bdbd  Bathrd  (S^nS  S2^),  122,  a,  also  has 
an  instructive  account.  Eleazar  stands  before  Joshua,  bearing  the 
Urim  and  Thummim  and  casting  lots  to  divide  the  land  among  the 
twelve  tribes  of  Israel.  There  were  two  urns  used,  one  containing 
twelve  lots,  each  with  the  name  of  a  tribe  written  on  it ;  the  other 
containing  twelve  apportionments  of  land.  The  priest  put  one  hand 
into  each  urn,  and  drew  in  one  hand  the  tribe,  and  in  the  other 
hand  the  portion  of  Canaan  which  was  to  be  theirs.  In  both  this 
instance  and  in  the  one  before  mentioned,  there  was  a  solenm  com- 
muning with  the  Holy  Spirit,  who  \vas  believed  to  direct  the  drawing. 
This  drawing  of  lots  suggests  the  comparison  of  the  method  of  choos- 
ing officers  at  Athens,  where  two  urns  were  used,  one  for  the  names 
of  the  candidates,  the  other  with  white  and  colored  beans,  the  person 
being  chosen  whose  name  was  drawn  simultaneously  with  a  white 
bean."*' 

Of  course  the  Mishnah  is  not  the  Old  Testament,  l)ut  it  claims  in 
Firqe  aboth  (m2X  ''pIS),  I.  i,  to  record  faithfully  the  ancient  oral 
law,  and  it  reaches  back  as  a  written  authority  to  the  time  of  the  Second 
Temple.  Here  then  we  have  a  clear  tradition  that  the  lots  were  put 
into  an  urn,  or  two  urns  as  the  occasion  demanded,  and  then  drawn. 

s^vbr  ains  nnxi  ccb  ''b'a  r-rr  -irs  rn'b-r:  "x*  rh::r:  •E'rpr  ^-rct 
,h^vt^vh 

^^  See  Seyffert's  Diet,  of  Classical  Aiitiqititics,  unJer  "Officials."  The  urn 
used  was  called  K\r)pwTpls;  cf.  on  this  subject,  kXtjpoo;  6fi(f>dv,  'to  obtain  an  oracle 
by  lot ';    KXdpoii  deowpoiriuv,  '  to  divine  by  lot  ";    cf.  Eur.  P/ia'/tissu',  852. 


FOOTE  :     THE    EPHOD.  25 

This  oral  tradition  helps  one  to  understand  the  account  of  the  allot- 
ment of  Canaan  as  given  in  Joshua.  For  instance  in  Josh.  17'^  we 
find  the  descendants  of  Joseph  complaining  that  Joshua  had  placed 
for  them  but  one  portion  for  an  inheritance,  whereas  they  were  really 

two  tribes,  "inx  bzm  iHs  Sii:  nbn:  'b  nnn:  vMt2.  This  seems 

to  point  to  the  two  urns,  one  for  the  lots  and  one  for  the  apportion- 
ments, and  the  traditional  method  of  drawing  lots.  We  may  compare 
here  a  passage  in  Acts  8-^,  where  Peter  tells  Simon  Magus  that  he  has 
neither  part  (7—!!?)  nor  lot  ('^'"113?)  in  the  matter.  Ovk  lo-rt  <tol 
fxepU  oiSe  KXrjpo<;  iv  tiS  Xoyu)  tovtio''^  —  nothing  in  either  urn,  may 
have  been  in  the  mind  of  the  writer,  who  was  doubtless  familiar  with 
Jewish  customs  ;  or  more  likely  the  expression  was  idiomatic  and 
originated  in  this  custom.     Cf.  Sap.  2^. 

But  notwithstanding  these  undoubted  instances  of  drawing  lots, 
the  fact  remains  that  the  verbs  used  to  express  the  use  of  lots  are 
almost  all  verbs  of  casting.  To  settle  the  matter,  if  possible,  the 
crucial  instance  of  casting  lots  for  the  robe,  Ps.  22''-',  was  chosen  for 
investigation,  as  being  the  one  most  commonly  associated  with  cast- 
ing dice.  This  suggested  Roman  usages  and  the  child  drawing  the 
lot  at  the  Prcenestine  Oracle.  Authorities  like  Pauly,  Smith's  Classi- 
cal Antiquities,  and  Marquardt's  Romische  Staatsvenualtuiig  have 
accepted  the  expression  "  to  cast  lots  "  as  stating  some  unexplained 
custom.  The  latter,  however,  refers,  in  a  note,  to  Servius  on  the 
^neid,  a  passage  which  will  shortly  be  considered.  A  distinction 
must  first  be  made  between  the  use  of  soi's  or  kA^^os  '  lot,'  and  tes- 
serae, tali,  Kvfioi  and  do-rpayaAot  '  dice.'  These  do  not  enter  into 
this  investigation,  as  they  are  entirely  confined  to  the  gaming  sphere. 
The  common  expression  with  dice  is  "  playing,"  "  using,"  or  "  throw- 
ing." In  the  Roman  world  the  use  of  dice  was  prohibited  by  the 
Lex  Titia  et  Pitblicia  et  Cornelia ;  the  Roman  soldiers  could  not 
have  used  them  under  the  eyes  of  a  centurion  ;  and  even  in  Decem- 
ber, during  the  Saturnalia,  they  could  have  had  no  connection  with 
divination. 

To  return  to  the  lot,  the  verbs  used  with  sors  are  mostly  verbs  of 
casting  like  conicere,  deice7-e,  inittei-e,  etc.,  but  not  the  idea  of  casting 
out  of  a  vessel,  but  generally  /;/  sitellam,  which  seems  to  have  been 
a  vessel  with  a  small  mouth,  and  filled  with  water,  in  which  the  lots 

61  Salkinson-Ginsljurg  translate :  nn  irnr  rhn:^  pby\  "^  pS.  Delitzsch : 
b'y\Ti  yhr\  "■^  J"K.  pbn  may  have  denoted  originally  a  smooth  pebble  (Is.  57^) 
used  as  a  lot.  \y7\^  '  to  allot'  may  be  denominative;  cf.  .Albert  Schultens,  quoted 
in  Gesenius'  Thesaurus. 


26  JOURNAL   OF    BIBLICAL   LITERATURE. 

were  put,  but  only  one  of  them,  as  they  floated  on  the  top,  could 
appear  in  the  small  opening.  Otherwise  the  sitella  was  used  without 
water,  lots  being  drawn  from  it,  as  Livy,  25,  3,  16,  sitella  lata  est,  ut 
sortirentur.  The  expression  /;/  sitellam  is  like  the  in  uniam  of 
Est.  3^^,  missa  est  sors  in  urnam,  but  there  is  no  Hebrew  equivalent 
for  in  itrnain.  Finally  much  light  is  thrown  on  the  subject  by  a 
passage  in  the  Casina  of  Plautus,  2,  5,  34,  which  shows  that  to  speak 
of  casting  lots  did  not  imply  that  they  were  not  also  drawn  at  the 
same  time.  Stalino  says  "  Coniciaui  sortes  in  sitellam  et  sortiar  Tibi 
at  Chalino." 

The  passage  in  the  yEneid,  I.  508  f.  refers  to  the  assignment  of 
the  daily  tasks  by  lot : 

Jura  dabat  legesque  viris,  operiiiuque  lahorem 
parlibus  cvqtiabat  ins/is,  a2it  sorte  trahebat. 

Servius  notes  that  Vergil  had  used  the  correct  expression :  Sorte 
trahebat ;  proprie  lociitus  est.  Trahuntur  ciiiin  sortes,  hoc  est,  edu- 
cuntur. 

Further  investigation  showed  that  drawing  lots  was  probably  the 
general  method  in  classical  antiquity.  Sortior,  indeed,  denominative 
from  sors,  and  meaning  to  draw  lots,  as  also  KXrjpovfxaL,  is  a  fair  index 
of  the  use  of  sortes,  even  where  it  is  distinctly  stated  that  the  lots 
were  cast.  "  Coniciam  sortes  in  sitellam  et  sortiar"  makes  the 
matter  quite  plain.  This  conclusion  taken  in  connection  with  the 
Hebrew  tradition  as  found  in  the  Mishnah  and  O.T.  lays  it  open 
to  serious  doubt  whether  a  custom  of  casting  a  lot  out  of  a  vessel  ever 
existed. 

But  there  still  remains  the  query  :  If  lots  were  drawn  in  divina- 
tion, why  was  casting  lots  the  well-nigh  universal  expression  ?  The 
solution  of  this  difficulty  seems  to  lie  in  the  difference  between  our 
point  of  view  and  that  of  the  ancients  in  respect  to  divination.  They 
believed  in  it,  as  a  rule,  whether  Latins  or  Greeks,  and  still  more  the 
Hebrews.  It  was  an  integral  part  of  their  religion.  The  ceremony 
was  accompanied  with  prayer,  and  it  was  unquestionably  believed 
that  the  Supreme  Wisdom  directed  which  lot  should  come  forth,  i.e. 
be  drawn.  The  human  element  was,  as  far  as  possible,  eliminated 
from  the  drawing.  The  priest  communed  with  God  and  snatched 
the  lots  suddenly  (see  above,  p.  24).  The  impersonal  expressions 
are  used  :  the  lot  came  up  or  came  forth  (see  the  verbs,  p.  22,  above). 
The  statement  that  the  lot  was  drawn  by  the  priest  is  distinctly 
avoided,  as  though  implying  that  God  did  not  order  it.     So  the  child 


FOOTE :     THE    EPHOD. 


UNIVERGlTY 

_       or 


was  employed  at  Praeneste  (as,  perhaps,  little  Samuel  at  Shiloh),  as 
being  more  purely  an  instrument  by  whom  God  made  known  His 
will.  The  peasants  in  Italy  still  seek  for  children  to  draw  lots  for 
them,  and  in  Germany  the  orphan  children  draw  in  the  lotteries. 
Evidently  man's  part  was  merely  the  casting  the  lots  into  the  urn  — 
it  was  impious  to  speak  of  a  man  drawing  them.  So  Prov.  i6^^  seems 
to  be  the  key,  when  rightly  understood,  to  the  whole  difificulty.  The 
lot  is  cast  in  the  urn,  but  the  whole  disposing  thereof  is  of  the  Lord.®^ 
In  drawing,  man  was  an  impersonal  agent  —  the  lot  came  out.  It 
was  man's  part  to  prepare  the  lots  and  cast  (which  may  have  had 
the  sense  of  mingling)  them  in  some  receptacle.  Hence  the  verbs 
used  with  lots  are  not  those  of  drawing,  but  casting. 

We  have  seen  that  lots  were  really  drawn  in  divination.  This 
requires  a  receptacle  of  a  different  kind  than  would  be  necessary  if 
lots  were  cast  out  on  the  ground.  A  receptacle  would  be  needed 
that  concealed  the  lots  from  sight  and  that  could  be  fixed  in  such  a 
way  that  the  hands  would  be  free  to  use  it.  An  urn  set  upon  a  tripod 
would  answer  the  purpose  if  it  were  so  shaped  that  the  lots  could 
not  easily  be  seen.  But  this  end  could  more  easily  be  attained  by 
using  a  pouch  which  would  have  the  additional  advantage  of  being 
portable,  and  when  used  could  be  hung  at  the  waist.  This  seems  to 
have  been  the  nature  of  the  ephod.  But  it  is  necessary  to  extend 
this  investigation  so  as  to  include  those  objects  which  are  connected 
with  divination  by  lot. 

1.   The  Teraphim. 

There  are  two  considerations  which  make  it  necessary  to  include 
teraphim.  The  ephod  is  associated  with  teraphim  in  Jud.  17  and  18, 
and  Hos.  3^ ;  and  the  teraphim  are  associated  with  divination ''''  in 
Gen.  T^d''^ ;  also  in  Ezek.  21-*^  and  Zech.  10-. 

That  the  teraphim  were  of  the  nature  of  idols  or  simulacra,  no 
one  denies.  Laban  accuses  Jacob  of  steahng  his  gods.  Micah  uses 
the  same  expression.     In  i  Sa.  15^  teraphim  are  condemned  along 

*'-  In  Prov.  i^*,  the  robbers  say  to  the  young  man,  "SiflS  TSU  Iv^lJ,  "cast  in' 
thy  lot  among  us,"  i.e.  put  your  name  on  a  lot  and  cast  it  with  our  lots,  so  that 
you  will  have  the  same  chance  of  getting  the  booty  as  we  have.  But  the  "  lot  " 
may  also  be  interpreted  to  mean  the  portion  (cf.  Jer.  13-^)  of  the  young  man  — 
put  it  in  with  our  funds,  let  us  have  one  purse.  See  Dr.  Philip  Schaff's  small 
Diet,  of  the  Bible,  under  "  Lots." 

•'■'  See  Robertson  Smith,  O.T.in  Jewish  Church,  p.  226,  ist  ed.,  and  Maybaum, 
Die  Entwickelung  des  altisraelitischen  Prophetenthums,  1 8S3,  p.  1 6. 


28  JOURNAL    OF    llIIiUCAL    LITERATURE. 

with  idolatry,  and  appear  in  the  same  connection  in  2  Ki.  23-*.  Va- 
rious theories  have  been  advanced  concerning  teraphim.  Wake,  in 
Serpent  Worship,  p.  47,  quite  arbitrarily  identifies  teraphim  with 
seraphim  and  refers  it  to  what  he  styles  "  the  serpent  symbol  of  the 
Exodus  called  seraph,"  Nu.  21''''',  Heb.,  comparing  also  the  serpent 
of  the  temple  of  Serapis.  Grant  Allen,  in  Evolution  of  the  Idea  of 
God,  pp.  182  f.,  explains  teraphim  as  representing  the  manes  and 
lares  in  the  worship  of  ancestors.  Schwally  '^  and  others  have  re- 
cently derived  teraphim  from  D^^£"l  '  manes.'  But  the  commonly 
accepted  view  compares  them  to  the  Penates.  It  is  noteworthy  that 
penates  always  occurs  in  the  plural  form  as  does  teraphim,  and  the 
two  accounts  of  the  stealing  of  teraphim  may  be  compared  to  yEneas 
taking  the  captured  penates  to  Italy  {.-En.  I.  68).''"  It  is  not  at  all 
improbable  that  in  the  life  of  the  Punic  leader  Hannibal  in  Corn. 
Nepos  {Nan.  ix.),  we  are  to  understand  teraphim  by  the  statuas 
aeneas.     As  to  the  form  of  the  teraphim,  it  has  been  supposed  from 

1  Sa.  19"  that  they  were  of  human  shape  and  size,*^®  but  the  inference 
as  to  the  size  is  not  warranted,  since  the  human  appearance  was  eked 
out  by  a  pillow  at  the  head  ;  all,  according  to  Oriental  custom,  being 
covered  with  the  bedclothes.  Of  all  the  mentions  of  the  teraphim 
this  is  the  only  one  that  might  seem  to  construe  teraphim  with  the 
singular,  but  it  is  not  certain ;  the  suffixes  supplied  in  the  English 
are  omitted  in  the  Hebrew,  only  one  being  used,  Tnu"K"l_p,  which, 
however,  may  refer  to  David  (so  Budde)  or  even  to  the  bed,  though 
it  is  masculine  gender.^"  The  LXX  to.  KevoTd(j>La  '  monuments  of  the 
dead,'  and  Latin  statiia  '^  in  place  of  the  almost  invariable  idola  may 

^*  Das  Leben  nach  dem  Tode,  p.  36.  Further  references  may  be  found  in 
Moore'sy«^^5,  Internatioital  Com.,  p.  382,  and  in  JM'Clintock  and  Strong's  Eticyc, 
of  Biblical  Lit. 

'°^  Ethnologically  one  would  err  in  imagining  any  connection  between  these 
early  peoples.  On  this  Brinton  says,  in  Religions  of  Primitive  Peoples  (p.  8), 
"  Professor  Buchmann  expressed  some  years  ago  what  I  believe  to  be  the  correct 
result  of  modern  research  in  these  words :  *  It  is  easy  to  prove  that  the  striking 
similarity  in  primitive  religious  ideas  comes  not  from  tradition  nor  from  relation- 
ship or  historic  connection  of  early  peoples,  but  from  the  identity  in  the  mental 
construction  of  the  individual  man,  wherever  he  is  found.'  " 

^^  Not  so,  however,  Ilitzig;   see  Commentary  on  I  Sam.  19^^. 

^"^  Similar  irregularity  may  be  seen  in  several  instances,  e.g.  Ex.  1 1''  25^^  Jud.  1 1^* 
etc.,  cf.  Ges.-Kautzsch,  §  135,  0.     See  W.  Diehl,  Das  Pronomen  pers.  stiffixum 

2  u.  Topers,  pliir.  des  Hebr.  in  djr  alttest.  Uberliefrung,  Giessen,  1895.  ^"^^  ^^^'^ 
SB  0  T.,  Critical  Notes  ofi  Judges,  p.  65  f. 

^*  Note  that  the  versions  take  teraphim  as  a  plural,  with  the  exception  of  this 
s/atna. 


FOOTE :     THE    EPHOD.  29 

be  attempts  to  explain  away  the  presence  of  teraphim  in  David's 
house,  or,  it  may  be  that  the  teraphim,  among  those  who  had  given 
up  idolatry,  took  the  form  of  ancestral  images,  associated  more  or 
less  with  superstitious  veneration,  but  not  idolatry.  In  the  account 
of  Rachel's  steaHng  and  hiding  her  father's  teraphim  (Gen.  si''*''^), 
it  is  evident  that  the  word  is  plural,  and  that  the  teraphim  were 
tolerably  small  images,  or  she  could  scarcely  have  carried  them 
without  Jacob's  knowledge  or  hidden  them  so  that  Laban  could  not 
find  them. 

The  association  of  teraphim  with  divination  *''•'  is  so  frequent  that 
it  seems  to  indicate  the  principal  use  to  which  they  were  put.  That 
they  were  not  used  in  idolatrous  worship  is  to  be  inferred  from  the 
fact  that  Hosea,  who  boldly  censures  idolatry,  allows  the  use  of  ephod 
and  teraphim.™  But  if  they  were  idols,  how  could  they  have  given 
answers  to  questions?  It  is  quite  usual  for  commentators  to  speak 
of  "  consulting  idols,  oracular  idols,"  etc.  Now  a  commentator  may 
sometimes  give  an  oracular  utterance,  but  an  idol  never  !  If  one 
idol  had  ever  given  an  oracle,  we  should  never  have  had  the  magnifi- 
cent arraignment  of  idols  in  Deutero-Is.  4i-^''^-:  "Declare  to  us  what 
will  happen  in  the  future  that  we  may  know  that  ye  are  gods  :  yea, 
do  good,  or  do  evil,  do  something,  that  we  may  all  see  it !  Behold 
ye  are  of  no  account  and  your  work  is  nothing  at  all !  "  —  yet  many 
commentators,  who  will  not  allow  any  supernatural  occurrence  to 
pass  without  advancing  a  natural  explanation,  are  quite  prone  to 
imply,  and  base  arguments  on  the  conclusion  that  the  idols  in  some 
mysterious  way  gave  oracles.  Rychlak,  e.g ,  in  Osee,  says  that  error 
would  be  avoided,  si  de  manifcstationibus  idolorum,  qjiae  et  consule- 
Imnfi/r  et  aliqiiando  consulentibiis  responsa  dabiint,in- 
telligamiis.  Again,  referring  specifically  to  the  older  passages  which 
mention  the  ephod,  two  of  which,  i  Sa.  23^  and  30^,  represent  the 
ephod  as  giving  oracles,  Maybaum  says,'^  All  those  passages  through- 
out give  the  impression  that  by  ephod  is  meant  a  real  Yahweh  image. 
Now,   either  an  image   can  give  an    oracle,   or  the    supposition  is 

69  See  an  article  by  Farrer  in  Kitto's  Cydop(vdia  of  Biblical  Lit.,  Vol.  III., 
p.  986. 

™  In  this  passage,  Hos.  3'*,  the  prophet  says  of  his  unfaithful  wife  that  she 
must  abide  with  him  many  days  in  faithfulness,  but  without  a  wife's  privileges; 
so  must  Israel  abide  for  a  period  of  purification  "  without  king  and  without 
prince,  and  without  sacrifice  and  without  i>i(i(;(;ebdh,  and  without  epliidh  and 
teraphim."  Note  that  ephod  and  teraphim  are  more  closely  joined  than  the 
other  couples. 

"1  Die  Entiuickeliitig  des  altisrael.  Prophetentuvis,  1883,  p.  26. 


30  JOURNAL   OF    BIBLICAL   LITERATURE. 

untenable.'-  It  may  be  argued  that  the  users  of  them  believed  that 
they  gave  oracles.  They  may  easily  have  thought  that  idols  heard 
their  prayers  and  influenced  their  destinies,  but  it  is  not  credible  that 
they  believed  that  any  idol  (apart  from  priest-jugglery)  ever  answered 
such  a  question  as  this,  "  If  I  pursue  this  troop,  shall  I  overtake 
them?"  I  Sa.  30^',  but  David  received  the  answer  "yes."  Now  it 
may  have  been  that  lots  were  used  coram  idolo  and  with  some  invo- 
cation of  the  idol.  In  Cheyne-Black's  Encyc.  Biblica  under  "  Divina- 
tion," Professor  Davies,  of  Bangor,  in  considering  Ezek.  21*,  says, 
"  We  omit  the  reference  to  the  teraphim  because  no  new  point  is 
indicated  by  it;  the  king  consulted  the  teraphim  [singular],  by 
shaking  the  arrows  before  it,  as  was  always  done  also  by  the  heathen 
Arabs."  His  designating  teraphim  as  singular  is  quite  arbitrary  (see 
above,  p.  28).  By  consulting  the  section  on  arrows  (p.  34,  below), 
it  will  be  seen  that  arrows  were  not  always  used  before  idols.  But 
farther  on  in  the  article  Davies  says  that  possibly  the  teraphim  were 
used  as  lots.  Then  why  not  here  in  Ezek.  21-*^?  But  the  idea  that 
the  Hebrevi^s  consulted  idols  by  casting  lots  before  them  is  pure 
supposition,  while  the  use  of  lots  is  not  supposition  but  fact,  as  has 
been  shown  in  regard  to  the  ephod,  and  will  be  shown  in  regard  to 
Urim  and  Thummim.  These  were  real  oracles,  not  dumb  idols.  The 
prophets  could  not  say  of  them,  "  Behold  ye  are  of  no  account,  and 
your  work  is  nothing  at  all !  "  for  great  leaders  in  Israel  had  relied 
on  them  and  had  been  victorious. 

But  "the  teraphim,"  says  the  prophet  Zechariah  (10-),  "have 
spoken  vanity,"  np'^T  IIH  n^Z:D1pm  pK  1131  a^2nnn  ^D,  "  and  the 
diviners  have  seen  a  lie."  The  LXX  in  this  passage,  and  in  Hos.  3'*, 
renders  teraphim  respectively  by  diro<t)6eyy6ix€voL  and  S^Aoi,  terms 
which  indicate  anything  but  dumb  idols,  and  in  this  connection 
should  be  accorded  due  weight.  In  the  passage  in  Hosea,  and  also 
in  Jud.  17  and  18,  teraphim  are  associated  with  the  ephod.  Micah 
makes  an  ephod  and  teraphim,  puts  them  in  a  private  chapel,  secures 
a  competent  priest,  and  then  travellers  stop  in  and  consult  the  oracle. 
With  what  is  already  known  of  the  ephod,  vis.,  that  it  was  a  pouch 

"-In  the  same  strain,  Nowack  (Die  Kleiucn  Propheten,  1S97,  P-  26)  says: 
T2S  in  the  old  time  undoubtedly  was  an  idol  which  was  used  to  give  oracles, 
I  Sa.  2-^-^  Tp'.  He  adheres  to  the  same  view  in  his  Richter  und  RiUh,  1901. 
(Jn  the  other  hand,  cf.  Meyer  {Chronicon  Ilehraoriun,  1699,  p.  468),  speaking  of 
a  theory  that  teraphim  were  statues  of  loved  ones  :  "  Micol  aiidivit  quasi  voceni 
submissain  loqiientem  ad  se  de  rebus  futuris  .  .  .  quod  est  impossibile,  cum  sermo 
non  possit fieri  nisi  per  organa  a  Deo  in  natura  posita." 


FOOTE :     THE   EPHOD. 


31 


to  contain  the  sacred  lots,  it  seems  quite  likely  that  the  teraphim 
were  little  images  used  as  lots.  We  have  inferred  from  Gen.  31'^, 
the  account  of  Rachel  hiding  her  father's  teraphim,  that  they  must 
have  been  small ;  from  Hos.  3''  —  the  prophecy  of  Israel's  being  for 
many  days  without  teraphim  (see  note  70  on  p.  29,  above)  —  that  they 
were  not  condemned  as  idols,  but  associated  with  the  ephod.  The 
order  of  occurrence  is  always  ephod  and  teraphim.  The  ephod 
itself  was  independent  of  the  lots,  which  were  called  by  another 
name.  The  Urim  and  Thummim,  as  we  shall  see,  were  such  lots ; 
the  arrows  were  lots  ;  the  gordloth  were  lots ;  the  teraphim  seem  to 
have  been  used  as  lots  also.  It  is  quite  natural  that  an  image,  looked 
upon  with  superstitious  awe  as  in  some  way  a  supernatural  agent, 
should  be  the  common  household  means  of  appeal  to  a  wise  and 
benevolent  Power,  albeit  but  little  known.  The  small  size  of  such 
images  will  cause  no  surprise  to  those  who  are  familiar  with  the 
innumerable  Egyptian  images  not  longer  than  three  or  four  inches,  or 
the  miniature  idols  of  the  Chinese.  In  Ezek.  21"''  the  king  of  Babylon 
wishes  to  have  divine  guidance  as  to  the  route  of  an  expedition. 
To  obtain  it  he  uses  three  means,  of  which  one  is  consulting  the 
teraphim.  He  looked  for  real  assistance.  We  are  probably  to 
understand  that  he  consulted  the  teraphim  as  we  might  speak  of 
consulting  the  dice.  We  conclude,  then,  that  there  is  no  Hebrew 
authority  to  prove  that  teraphim  is  ever  a  pliiralis  extensivus,  indicat- 
ing but  one  image,  but  there  are  three  passages  where  it  is  evidently 
plural,  and  the  others  are  non-committal,  or  favor  the  plural.  As 
to  size,  our  preconceived  notions  formed  from  the  words  image  and 
idol  make  it  hard  to  think  of  the  very  small  kind  which,  as  among 
the  Chinese,  may  have  been  the  common  household  image.  The 
narratives,  where  they  are  readily  carried  or  concealed  even  by  a 
woman,  certainly  strengthen  this  view.  That  they  were  not  used  in 
idolatrous  worship  in  the  time  of  Hosea  (c.  740  b.c.)  seems  a  fair 
inference  (cf.  above,  p.  29),  and  the  connection  with  the  ephod, 
together  with  the  fact  that  they  gave  oracles,  seems  to  point  to  the 
theory  advanced,  viz.,  that  the  teraphim  were  small  images  used  as 
lots  in  divination,  at  a  period  in  all  probability  earlier  than  1000  B.C. 
For  elaborate  arguments  for  the  identity  of  teraphim  with  Urim  and 
Thummim,  the  reader  is  referred  to  Spencer's  De  Lcgibiis  ritualibus 
Hebraeorum,  1732,  III.  3,  and  to  Robertson  Smith's  Old  Testament 
in  the  Jezvish  Church,  1892,  p.  292,  n.  i.  That  the  teraphim  were 
gradually  abandoned  seems  evident  from  their  later  condemnation 
as  something  classed  with  idolatry  and  clung  to  with  like  stubborn- 


32  JOURNAL    OF    BIBLICAL    LITERATURE. 

ness ;  cf.  i  Sa.  15"'',  "For  rebellion  is  as  the  sin  of  divination  (QCp, 
see  below,  p.  34)  and  stubbornness  is  as  iniquity  (jlS,  see  below, 
p.  40,  n.  100)  and  teraphim." '■''  Apparently  a  later  comment  aimed 
at  superstitious  practices  more  than  at  the  principle  of  divination. 
See  also  2  Ki.  23"^,  where  teraphim  are  classed  with,  but  not  as  idols. 

2.    Urim  and  Thummim. 

The  same  reasons  which  made  it  necessary  to  investigate  the 
teraphim  apply  to  the  Urim  and  Thummim.  Their  origin,  as  in  the 
case  of  ephod  and  teraphim,  is  unknown.  The  earliest  document 
of  the  O.T.  which  mentions  them  is  the  Deuteronomic  Blessing,'* 
Deut.  33^,  which  has  been  assigned  by  Moore ''  to  the  time  of 
Jeroboam  II  (782-743).  The  passage  in  no  way  helps  to  an  under- 
standing of  what  the  Urim  and  Thummim  were.  The  account  in 
I  Sa.  14'*^  and  28''  associates  the  use  of  Urim  and  Thummim  with 
Saul.  The  narrative  is  probably  E,  prior  to  750  B.C. ;  and  it  is  to 
be  noted  that  the  use  of  Urim  and  Thummim  is  taken  as  a  customary 
thing,  and  although  the  passage  in  i  Sa.  14*^  in  the  Hebrew,  has  be- 
come corrupt,  it  is  evidently  since  the  third  century  B.C.,  and  it  shows 
no  signs  of  intentional  alteration.  The  use  of  Urim  and  Thummim '® 
in  divination  in  pre-exilic  times  is  seen  in  i  Sa.  i4''^*',  where  Saul 
divines  with  them  to  discover  who  had  broken  the  taboo  which  he 
had  placed  upon  food.  From  v.''  it  will  be  seen  that  the  ephod" 
was  used,  and  we  are  to  understand  that  the  lots  were  drawn  from 
it.  Professor  Haupt  has  rendered  the  passage  as  follows  :  '*  "  Saul 
said  :   O  Yahvveh,  God  of  Israel,  why  hast  Thou  not  responded  to 

74  iVcn  tT'Kb  T'TIKI  -["an  -laS  ^"Ht,  "And  of  Levi  be  said,  thy  Thummim 
and  thy  Urim  be  for  the  man,  thy  godly  one." 

"^  Cheyne-Black's  EncyclopLtdia,  col.  1090,  §  25. 

'^  A  careful  survey  of  the  literature  on  Urim  and  Thummim  may  lie  found  in 
an  article  so  entitled  by  Muss-Arnolt  in  the  Ainer.  Journal  of  Semitic  Lit.,  July, 
1900. 

'^  In  I  Sa.  28^  we  read  that  Saul  could  obtain  no  oracle,  neither  by  dreams, 
nor  by  Urim,  nor  by  prophets,  misbna  QJ  mn"  inJU  sbl  m,T2  SlSU'  bsC"1 
D'X'^iS  DJI  D'llXD  DX  Comparing  the  undoubted  use  of  the  ephod  by  Saul, 
the  omission  of  it  here  is  an  indication  that  it  was  understood  to  be  used  with 
Urim;  cf.  Driver's  article  on  "Law"  in  Hastings'  Dictionary  of  the  Bible,  1900; 
also  Robertson  Smith's  OT.  in  the  Jewish  Ch.,  1 881,  p.  42S,  n.  4. 

<bs"it'''  larn  W".  DS1  ams  •r,'zr\  Ssnt" '"nbs*  .t,t  nn  prn  'rr  inrn-z  *x 


FOOTE :     THE    EPHOD, 

Thy  servant  this  day?  If  the  guilt  be  in  me  or  in  my  son  Jonathan, 
O  Yahweh,  God  of  Israel,  give  Urim ;  but  if  it  should  be  Thy  people 
Israel,  give  Thummim." ''■^  With  Wellhausen  and  Schwally,  Haupt 
combines  D'^mS  with  "l"li^  curse,  representing  the  unfavorable  an- 
swer, while  D^^n  means  '  blamelessness,  acquittal,'  and  is  the  favor- 
able answer. 

The  general  view  of  the  size  of  Urim  and  Thummim  is  gained 
from  the  description  of  the  i^'fl,  a  kind  of  pocket  (usually  mistrans- 
lated 'breast-plate  '),  which  is  given  in  Exodus  and  Leviticus.  This 
pocket,  bearing  twelve  precious  stones,  was  about  twelve  inches 
square,  fastened  permanently  to  the  high  priest's  breast,  with  an 
opening  to  allow  the  high  priest  to  take  out  the  Urim  and  Thummim, 
which  were  kept  within.  It  could  scarcely  have  been  used  as  a 
dice-box,  for  it  could  not  be  removed  from  the  ephod.  Here,  how- 
ever, we  may  see  a  trace  of  the  pre-exilic  form  of  the  ephod,  —  a 
pouch  to  contain  the  sacred  lots.  It  is  altogether  unlikely  that  Urim 
and  Thummim  were  ever  used  with  the  jtl-'n,  as  nothing  is  heard  of 
it  before  the  Exile,  and  after  the  Return  it  seems  that  Urim  and 
Thummim  could  not  be  used,^  or  rather,  that  they  no  longer  existed. 
If  they  had  survived  the  Captivity,  they  could  doubtless  have  been 
used.  The  Babylonian  Talmud,  Sota,  48,  a,  states  that  Urim  and 
Thummim  were  lost  at  the  time  of  the  destruction  of  the  Temple, 
586  B.C.'-'  Maimonides,^-  however,  speaks  of  Urim  and  Thummim 
having  existed  to  complete  the  garments  of  the  high  priest  though 
they  were  not  consulted.  It  seems  probable  that  something  was 
made  to  represent  them. 

A  good  deal  has  been  made  by  Wellhausen,  Benzinger,  and 
Thenius-Lohr  of  the  technic  of  the  priest  in  the  use  of  lots ;  but 
the  idea  has  arisen  from  a  misconception  of  the  manner  in  which 
they  were  used,  and  a  misunderstanding  of  i  Sa.  14''^  and  perhaps 
14^'^,  where  receiving  no  answer  may  have  been  ascribed  to  a  fault 
of  technic.     Undoubtedly,  if  the  post-exilic  priest  had  had  Urim  and 


"^^  See  BELR.  in  Journal  of  Biblical  Lit.,  1900,  p.  58,  and  notes  54-61,  and 
cf.  "Crit.  Notes  on  Numbers,"  in  SBO'J'.,  p.  57,  1.  45. 

*"  Cf.  Ezra  2®^,  and  Berlheau-Ryssel's  commentary;    also  Siegfried  ad loc. 

81  n-isni  cms  "hciZ  n';ii:'S-in  D'S'r:  'narD,  "  From  the  destruction  of  the 
former  prophets  Urim  and  Thummim  were  lost." 

8-  Yadh  Hachazaqah,  Warsaw,  llSl,  tyipaS  "bs  T'^Sbn,  x.  lO :    "X'  T\"Z'Z  "fy 

p*  pbsrj  '\''r\  x'r'i'  s'l'xi  n'n;n  n;br  cbrnb  "ns  n'larn  nnis*, "  They  made 

in  the   Second  Temple  Urim  and  Thummim,  in  order  to   complete  the  eight 
garments,  although  they  were  not  consulted  by  them." 


34  JOURNAL    OF    BIBLICAL    LITERATURE. 

Thummim,  he  would  have  used  them  ;  but  not  having  them,  the  idea 
may  have  grown  up  that  they  were  of  the  nature  of  charms.  Well- 
hausen,  in  Skizzen,  III.,  p.  144,  in  speaking  of  amulets,  says  :  "  Frey- 
tag  has  compared  the  Thummim  of  the  high  priest,  which  likewise 
were  carried  at  the  neck.  The  phylacteries  and  bells  on  the  pallium 
show  that  one  is  not  justified  is  repudiating  the  comparison.  How- 
ever, although  the  later  Jews  may  have  regarded  Urim  and  Thummim 
as  a  charm-ornament  of  the  high  priest,  they  seem  to  have  been 
originally  two  lots  to  which,  when  used  for  oracular  purposes,  was 
attributed  any  alternative  you  please  as  signification  (see  Vatke, 
323)."  It  is  not  improbable  that  the  sacred  lots  had  come  down 
from  heathen  times  and  that  they  were  originally  amulets.'*'  They 
may  have  been  the  sacred,  or  priestly,  lots,  while  the  teraphim  were 
the  common  household  lots.  Probably  they  were  marked  by  color, 
or  more  likely  with  the  words  by  which  they  were  called,  indicating 
one  as  the  favorable,  and  the  other  as  the  unfavorable  answer.  Be- 
ing lost  at  the  Captivity,  and  forgotten,  the  very  significance  of  the 
names  was  no  longer  recognized  and  the  Versions  render  "  Lights 
and  Perfections."   ' 

3.    Arrows  and  Rods. 

These  complete  the  list  of  articles  used  by  the  Hebrews  in  divina- 
tion by  lot,  if,  indeed,  the  arrow  is  to  be  distinguished  from  the  rod. 
It  is  misleading  even  to  speak  of  the  Hebrews  in  this  connection,  for 
an  undoubted  instance  of  a  Hebrew  (not  a  Bedouin)  divining  with 
arrows  is  yet  to  be  found. 

In  Ezek.  2i-^''-,  "the  king  of  Babylon  stood  at  the  parting  of  the 
way  to  use  divination  (DDp)  :  he  shook  the  arrows,  he  consulted  the 
teraphim,*^*  he  inspected  the  liver.  In  his  right  hand  is  the  lot, 
Jerusalem,  .  .  ."  Much  light  is  thrown  on  the  use  of  arrows  as  lots, 
in  a  dissertation  by  Anton  Huber.*''  In  the  game  of  Meisir,  arrows 
were  used  for  lots.  They  were  previously  marked  with  names  or 
notches,  and  then  placed  in  a  leathern  bag  or  quiver,  and  shaken 
under  a  sheet  which  was  held  so  as  to  conceal  the  arrows  from  the 
person  who  shook  them.  \\'hen  an  arrow  was  shaken  up  so  as  to 
project  above  the  others,  it  was  drawn  and  handed  to  another  person 

^^  Cf.  Brinton,  Religions  of  Primitive  Peoples,  1897,  P-  '4S>  o"  lucky  stones. 

8*  The  idea  advanced  by  Davies,  of  Bangor  (see  above,  p.  30),  that  shaking 
the  arrows  and  consulting  the  teraphim  were  but  one  act  is  not  borne  out  by  the 
Hebrew.  The  methods  used  are  as  evidently  three  as  any  brief  statement  could 
make  them. 

85  Uber  das  "  Meisir"  genannte  Spiel  Jer  heidnischen  Araber,  Leipzig,  18S3. 


FOOTE :     THE   EPHOD.  35 

who  gave  it  to  the  owner,  who  won  according  to  the  marks  on  the 
arrow.  This  gives  all  the  fects  necessary  for  understanding  how 
arrows  were  used.  The  connection  with  Ezek.  21'-''  is  estabhshed  by 
the  word  for  shaking  the  arrows,  Arab,  qalqala,  which  is  the  ^\t^\> 
of  this  passage.  The  lot  in  his  hand,  Jerusalem,  was  evidently  the 
arrow  marked  Jerusalem  to  indicate  the  course  of  the  expedition."'' 
Wellhausen,  Skizze/i,  III.,  p.  127,  comes  to  the  same  conclusion, 
based  upon  St.  Jerome  quoted  by  Gesenius,  as  follows  :  He  consults 
the  oracle  according  to  the  ritual  of  his  people,  putting  the  arrows 
into  a  quiver,  after  first  marking  them  with  the  names  of  different 
places,  and  then  shaking  them  to  see  what  place  would  be  indicated 
by  the  coming  out  of  an  arrow,  and  what  city  he  should  first  attack. 
The  Greeks  call  this  /ScXofjiavTM  or  pa(S8ofxavTLa.  ^^'ellhausen's  con- 
jecture, Skizzen,  III.,  p.  167,  quoted  by  Benzinger,  p.  408,  n.,  that 
tordh  goes  back  to  the  lot-arrow  and  the  verb  'TT^  '  cast '  used  of 
lots  and  of  arrows,  a  '  direction '  being  obtained  in  the  first  instance 
from  the  way  the  arrow  pointed  when  cast  is  very  doubtful,  inasmuch 
as  it  lacks  the  element  of  chance  which  is  the  essence  of  divination 
by  lot ;  for  if  arrows  deviated  in  any  unforeseen  way  from  the  direc- 
tion in  which  they  were  shot,  it  would  render  skill  in  archery  unat- 
tainable. Besides,  it  is  first  necessary  to  show  that  arrows  were  ever 
'  cast '  in  divination.  They  were  shaken  and  drawn.  It  was  this 
superstitious  use  of  chance  that  caused  Mohammed  to  forbid  this 
use  of  arrows,  Koran,  Sura  V.  4,  92  ;  he  implies  that  Satan  is  the 
one  who  directs  chances,  not  God.  Contrast  with  this  Prov.  1 6'*^ : 
see  above,  p.  27.  Canon  Driver,  in  his  article  on  "  Law,"  riTin,  in 
Hastings'  Diciionary  of  /he  Bible,  1900,  seems  to  adopt  Wellhausen's 
conjecture  in  spite  of  his  warning :  Such  conjectures  always  remain 
uncertain  and  do  not  deserve  too  much  credit.  Wellhausen  there- 
upon retracts  a  conjecture  made  with  as  little  foundation,  that  C^tSri 
is  related  to  tamcVim  '  amulets.'  But  Driver  thinks  to  brace  up  the 
theory  by  the  use  of  H"!^  in  casting  lots.  There  might  be  some 
ground  for  it  if  lots  were  really  cast  as  he  supposes ;  but  being  in 
reality  dratvn,  as  were  the  arrows,  there  is  none.  Some  commenta- 
tors have  entered  so  heartily  into  the  idea  of  the  Loospfcile  that  an 
arrow  is  never  shot  but  it  is  in  divination.  So  it  is  with  Jonathan  and 
David,  and  so  with  Joash  at  Elisha's  death-bed.  But  it  is  altogether 
unlikely,  since  an  arrow,  when  shot,  is  gone.^'' 

^'5  See  Haupt's  "  Balwlonian  Elements  in  the  Levitical  Ritual,"  JBL.  XIX., 
notes  11-13. 

8"  Sellin,  in  Beilrage  ziir  Reliponsgesch.,  1897,  P-  "^  ff.,  is  not  convincing; 


36  JOURNAL   OF    BIBLICAL   LITERATURE. 

In  regard  to  the  use  of  the  rod,  the  only  reference  is  Hos.  4'-,  "'Xip 
^h  TT  ^hpf2^  Sstr^  I^VS,  "  My  people  consult  their  staff,  and  their 
rod  makes  known  to  them."  From  this  passage  no  idea  can  be 
gained  of  the  method  used  in  divination,  except  the  derivation  of 
7pS2  from  ^7p,  '  shake,'  indicating,  perhaps,  the  use  of  rods  in  a  way 
similar  to  that  of  the  arrows ;  and  this  is  favored  by  the  parallelism 
with  yV  which  may  be  used  for  ^H,  '  arrow ' ;  cf.  i  Sa.  i  f,  "  the 
staff*^  of  his  spear."  But  it  is  not  even  certain  that  it  was  a  lot  at 
all.  The  reference  may  be  to  a  so-called  divining  rod  which  is  said 
to  shake  in  the  hand  and  indicate  where  water  is  to  be  found.  If 
the  use  of  the  rod,  however,  were  similar  to  that  of  the  arrow  as  a 
lot,  this  verse  (Hos.  4'-),  with  the  use  of  1131  'to  go  astray'  after 
lot-oracles  (see  above,  p.  15)  ought  to  be  compared  with  Jud.  8-", 
where  the  same  expression  is  used  of  Gideon's  ephod.  The  rod  has 
an  extensive  use  in  Hebrew  literature  as  a  magician's  wand  or  pedes- 
trian's staff,  but  the  data  that  prove  its  use  as  a  lot  are  wanting. 

2.    T/ie  Ephod  as  a  Part  of  tlie  Insignia  of  Fries /s. 

With  the  Captivity  the  ancient  regime  of  the  Hebrews  came  to  an 
end,  and  the  period  of  Babylonian  influence  began.  In  all  probability 
many  old  customs  and  usages  fell  into  desuetude,  never  to  be  revived  • 
many  traditions  derived  from  heathen  times  lapsed,  and  thereafter 
were  only  remembered  with  shame;  many  ceremonial  objects  of 
venerable  antiquity  were  lost,  and  became  names  to  conjure  with, 
or  were  restored  under  new  forms  bearing  little  likeness  to  the  old. 
So  it  was  with  the  Urim  and  Thummim,  which  were  never  to  appear 
again;  and  yet  the  longing  for  them  breaks  forth  in  the  Korahite 
psalm  (43)  of  the  Second  Temple  :  "  O  send  out  Thy  Urim  and 
Thy  Thummim,  that  they  may  lead  me."  ^"^ 

But  though  Urim  and  Thummim  did  not  exist  after  the  Captivity 
(see  above,  p.  33),  yet  the  V^T\  was  made,  and  also  the  ephod  to 
which  it  was  attached;  for  the  Babylonian  Talmud,  j^'^Hp,  37,  «, 
has  a  tradition  of  sages  coming  to  a  certain  heathen  Dama,  the  son 

Ezek.  21-",  e.g.,  certainly  does  not  show  that  the  //el>rrws  used  arrows.  In  Reclus, 
Primitive  Folks,  p.  276,  is  a  suggestion  as  to  the  meaning  of  an  arrow  shot. 
Among  the  Kohls  of  Chota  Nagpore,  an  arrow  is  shot  in  front  of  a  person  as  a 
sign  that  the  way  is  cleared  for  him. 

^8  The  text  has  J'PI,  the  Q're  fl7;  cf.  also  the  interchange  of  //  and  "  in  modern 
Arabic. 

8^  See  Lagarde,  Propheiae  Chaldaice,  Lipsiae,  1872,  p.  xlvii,  who  emends:  Tw^ 

''3inr  r\i:>T\  I'lani  imx.   cf.  Duhm  ad  loc. 


FOOTE :     THE    EPHOD.  37 

of  Nethina  of  Ashkelon,  to  purchase  stones  for  the  ephod.*  But 
though  the  ephod  was  restored  in  an  altered  form,  it  was  never  again 
used  in  divination,  and  only  survived  as  a  part  of  the  insignia  of 
the  high  priest.  These  insignia  were  known  as  the  abundance  of 
garments,  D'^l^D  nDI")^,  which  is  explained  as  follows  :  "  High 
priests  who  officiated  from  the  day  that  the  oil  of  anointment  was 
lost  (Uterally  hidden),  had  their  high-priesthood  indicated  by  the 
abundance  of  their  garments,''  that  is,  they  wore  the  eight  priestly 
garments  ;  of  which  the  four  peculiar  to  the  high  priest  are  given 
as  :  p^l  |trm  "IISSI  b'VXS,  the  robe,  the  ephod,  the  breastplate, 
and  the  gold  plate. 

It  is  impossible  to  say  with  certainty  just  what  this  high  priest's 
ephod  was.  Some  writers,  like  Riehm  {HaJidwot-terbiich  des 
biblischen  Altertums,  2d  ed.,  1S93-4,  "Ephod"),  consider  it  essen- 
tially a  shoulder-piece  ;  as  Thenius,  e.g.,  says  the  ephod  is  nowhere 
anything  else  than  a  shoulder  garment.  Others  see  in  it  a  long  robe 
with  a  girdle  about  the  waist  and  the  hoshen,  or  '  pocket,'  fastened 
between  the  girdle  and  the  shoulders.  No  doubt  the  description 
was  plain  enough  to  him  who  wrote  it ;  but  the  only  clue  we  can 
have  to  the  object  described  must  come  from  a  knowledge  of  what 
the  old  ephod  was.  This  gives  us  three  points  which,  in  all  proba- 
bility, were  the  traditional  residuum  from  which  the  post-exilic  ephod 
was  reconstructed.''^  These  were  the  pouch  for  the  sacred  lots,  the 
girding  about  the  waist,  and  the  equivalence  of  ephod-bearer  and 
priest.  Now  the  main  points  in  the  description  of  the  later  ephod 
are  that  it  is  an  essential  part  of  the  insignia  of  the  high  priest,  the 
hoshen,  a  pouch  for  the  sacred  lots,  which  were  no  longer  in  exist- 
ence, and  the  woven  piece  for  girding  on.  These  have  been  brought 
out  in  all  descriptions  of  the  post-exihc  ephod,  but  the  point  that 
has  been  overlooked  is  that  the  hoshen  was  upon  the  zcoven  piece 
(2'Cn)  which  was  used  to  gird  it  on,  Ex.  28-*,  and  not  between  the 
band  and  the  shoulders,  as  has  been  supposed.  Moreover,  the  loca- 
tion of  the  woven  piece  was  not  at  the  waist,  but  higher  up,  *'  over 

9^  "TEKb  C":::X  earn  i:aa  ICpr;.  See  Babylonian  Talmud,  SC",  p.  73,  a, 
Commentary  of  Rashi.  n2""l!2  is  the  participle  Pual  (n5~!2),  and  properly 
denotes  the  high  priest,  not  his  garments;  cf.  Levy's  Diet.  n^nD;  see  also 
Jast row's  Diet,  p.  838,  /'. 

31  Robertson  Smith,  O.T.  in  the  Jew.  Ch.,  p.  219,  says:  "  Many  features  of  the 
old  Hebrew  life  which  are  reflected  in  lively  form  in  the  Earlier  Prophets,  were 
obsolete  long  before  the  time  of  the  Chronicler,  and  could  not  be  revived  except 
by  archceological  research.  The  whole  life  of  the  old  kingdom  was  buried  and 
forgotten." 


38  JOURNAL    OF    BIBLICAL    LITERATURE. 

the  heart,"  Ex.  28"^'.  Hence  the  band  must  have  encircled  the 
body  just  under  the  armpits.  The  braces''^'  over  the  shoulders,  not 
needed  on  the  old  ephod,  were  required  to  keep  the  band  in  place 
when  it  was  no  longer  around  the  loins.  The  "  stones  of  remem- 
brance "  are  an  indication  of  the  thought  of  a  later  age  and  are  quite 
in  harmony  with  the  fashioning  of  a  decoration,  the  use  of  which 
had  long  since  passed  away.  The  expression  "  over  Aaron's  heart " 
is  simply  an  indication  of  place  ;  the  metaphorical  sense  of  D7  was 
mind  as  we  still  preserve  it  in  the  phrase  to  learn  by  heart.  Rashi 
(Breithaupt,  p.  672)  says  :  "  I  have  neither  heard  of  nor  found  in 
the  Talmud  an  exposition  of  the  form  of  this  ephod ;  but  I  imagine 
that  it  was  a  cincture  of  a  breadth  accommodated  to  a  man's  back, 
something  Hke  an  apron  (succinctorium)."  There  is  another  indi- 
cation of  the  location  of  this  band.  Ezek.  44'^^,  giving  directions  as 
to  the  priestly  garments,  says  :  Vlp  T\T\\  X7,  which  is  said  to  mean 
that  the  band  shall  not  be  so  high  as  to  be  sweated  under  the  arms, 
nor  so  low  as  to  be  liable  to  the  same  at  the  loins.  But  this  is 
doubtful.  Yet  so  Rashi :  "  Hence  they  did  not  gird  themselves  in 
places  liable  to  sweat,  neither  at  their  armpits  above  nor  their  loins 
below."  Modern  attempts  at  restoration  of  the  post-exilic  ephod 
have  neglected  these  points.  Professor  Moore  (Cheyne-Black's 
Encye.  Biblica,  vol.  ii.,  "  Ephod  ")  describes  it  as  a  curious  garment 
coming  to  the  knees,  apparently  confusing  it  with  the  T"X2  or  '  robe ' 
of  the  ephod,  Ex.  39",  which  was  not  a  part  of  the  ephod,  but  was 
put  on  first,  and  is  enumerated  by  itself  as  a  distinct  garment  (see 
above,  p.  37).  Braunius'"'  has  some  curious  pictures  of  the  ephod, 
and  Riehm'-'^  has  some  still  more  curious,  but  they  are,  of  course, 
imaginary  reconstructions  and  not  intended  to  be  taken  as  authentic. 
But  from  the  data  given  above  we  shall  not  be  far  astray  if  we 
picture  to  ourselves  the  post-exilic  ephod  as  a  woven  band,  probably 
as  wide  as  the  hoshen,  i.e.  a  span,  encircling  the  body  between  the 
armpits  and  the  loins,  having  jewelled  braces  to  hold  it  in  place,  and 
a  jewelled  pouch  in  front  —  the  traditional  receptacle  for  the  sacred 
lots.     It  is  not  hard  to  see  in  this  portion  of  the  ])ost-exilic  insignia 

^2  Professor  Haupt  has  kindly  suggested  to  me  that  in  the  description  of  the 
bronze  carriages  for  the  sacrificial  basins  in  i  Ki.  'j'^'^-  *''  (cf.  Crit.  Notes  on  KingSs 
SBOT.  ad  he.  and  Stade's  paper  in  ZAT.  XXI.),  msn3  means  'struts,  oblique 
braces' = 'suspenders ';  see  the  figure  of  a  Bedouin  with  mSflS,  Psalms,  in 
SBOT.,  p.  224. 

®^  De  Vestiin  Sacerdotum  Hebr.,  1701. 

^*  Handivorlerbuch  dcs  biblischen  Alter  turns,  1884,  Ephod, 


FOOTE :     THE   EPHOD.  39 

the  essential  features  of  the  ancient  ephod.  It  cannot  be  termed  a 
development,  but  rather  a  reconstruction  based  upon  a  tradition 
which  embodied  the  chief  characteristics  of  the  antique  ephod. 


3.    CONCLUSION. 

In  the  light  of  the  foregoing  investigation  it  is  apparent  that  many 
commentators  have  gone  astray  because  they  did  not  give  due  weight 
to  the  essential  connection  of  the  ephod  with  divination,  —  and  not 
some  magical,  image-speaking,  priest-juggling,  kind  of  divination, 
which  is  utterly  without  proof  among  the  Hebrews,  but  the  ephod 
is  associated  with  divination  by  lot.  This  is  the  raison  d'etre  of  the 
old  ephod,  and  an  investigation  which  overlooks  it  is  liable  to  any 
kind  of  idle  conjecture.  Professor  Marti's  error  has  been  of  this 
nature,  and  this  is  the  difficulty  with  Professor  ^Moore's  article  in 
the  Eiuye.  Bibliea,  although  some  of  the  inferences  are  no  doubt 
correct  and  were  published  by  the  present  writer  in  the  JHU  Cir- 
culars'^^ over  eight  months  before  that  article  appeared. 

That  the  ephod  was  originally  an  idol  and  afterwards  became 
something  to  hold  lots,  is,  again,  opposed  to  the  sound  ethnological 
principle  stated  by  Robertson  Smith  that  nothing  is  more  foreign  to 
traditional  rites  than  the  arbitrary  introduction  of  new  forms.  Any 
custom  that  is  based  on  a  superstition  cannot  change,  because  the 
essential  cannot  be  distinguished  from  the  non-essential.  This  is 
clearly  seen  in  the  superstitious  rites  of  the  Romans,  and  especially  in 
magical  incantations  and  the  rites  of  the  Salii.'"'  Quintilian,  I.  6,  40, 
says:  Salionim  carinina  vix  saeerdotibus  suis  satis  intel/ecta  :^'  sed 
ilia  mvtari  vetat  religio  et  consecratis  utendum  est.  But  divination 
by  lot  was  a  superstition.  The  ephod,  it  is  evident,  goes  back  to 
times  that  cannot  long  have  been  distinguishable  from  pure  heathen- 
dom. The  lots  used  with  the  ephod  were  not  common  pebbles,  but 
traditional  and  sacred  lots,  whether  teraphim  or  Uriin  and  Thiuninim. 
Correctness  of  ritual  is  the  more  important  as  the  rites  are  less 
understood.  Hence  Micah's  joy  at  having  a  Levite  for  a  priest : 
"  Now  I  know  that  Yahweh  will  do  me  good,  since  I  have  gotten  a 

^3  This  statement  is  made,  of  course,  in  my  own  defence.  The  paper  referred 
to,  antedating  the  appearance  of  the  Encyc.  Bibliea,  does  not  note  that  the  arti- 
cle on  Dress  by  Abrahams  and  Cook  suggests  the  possibility  of  the  ephod's  being 
originally  a  loincloth. 

^  See  Teuffel  and  Schwabe, ///.f/i'ri'  of  Roman  Lit.,  1891,  concerning  the  Salii 
^"  How  true  of  our  own  Authorized  Version !  and  the  following  too. 


fT 8  R  AR 

or  TME 

VNIVERSi 


4©  JOURNAL    OF    BIBLICAL    LITERATURE. 

Levite  as  my  priest."  "'^  The  same  devotion  to  the  minutest  detail 
of  ritual  is  to  be  noted  in  the  Ceremoniale  of  the  Roman  Church. 
And  so  with  the  ephod,  unless  the  proper  lots  were  had,  no  oracle 
could  be  obtained  ;  cf.  Ezra  2^,  and  see  above,  p.  33.  The  very 
manner  of  drawing  lots  was  of  prime  importance ;  cf.  Gemarah  on 
Yoma,  4^  (see  above,  p.  24).  How,  then,  can  we  suppose  that  the 
ephod  was  at  one  time  an  idol,  and  in  less  than  two  hundred  years 
after  it  was  something  to  hold  lots  girded  on  little  Samuel's  waist ! 
Yet  Maybaum ''■' asserts  that  Micah's  ephod  was  an  idol  (732)  and 
later  on  was  called  ^T^,  a  'calf  !  It  has  been  suggested  that  the 
ephod  must  have  been  connected  with  idolatry,  because  in  several 
passages  the  word  ephod  seems  to  have  been  purposely  eliminated 
from  the  narrative.™  Budde,  in  his  commentary  on  Judges,  1897, 
p.  68,  says  that  the  old  ephod  must  somehow  have  represented  the 
deity  and  therefore  was  afterwards  repudiated.  But  if  any  such 
intentional  corrupting  of  passages  took  place,  it  must  have  been 
accomplished  shortly  before  the  Captivity,  since,  with  the  exception 
of  Wellhausen,^"^  commentators  agree  that  Hosea  allows  the  ephod 
and  teraphim  as  "  necessary  forms  and  instruments  of  the  worship  of 
Jehovah,"  to  use  the  words  of  Robertson  Smith,  and  hence  the  ephod 
could  not  have  been  an  idol.  As  for  post-exilic  times  it  makes  little 
difference  what  it  was,  for  it  had  evidently  been  forgotten ;  and  yet 
one  cannot  help  feeling  that,  had  it  been  an  idol  or  any  object  of 
worship,  it  would  not  have  been  restored  ; "'-  but,  like  the  teraphim, 
which  represented  a  comparatively  harmless  superstition,  would  have 
been  allowed  to  remain  in  oblivion.  There  is,  however,  another 
reason  for  the  corruption  of  the   passages  referring  to  the  ephod 

98 :  pab  'i'?n  ^h  ,Tn  "d  "b  n\T  s'ts"  '3  "nuT  nni?  nra  n)2^{•^.    what  a 

confession,  by  the  way,  that  the  Aaronic  priesthood  was  not  known !  See 
Robertson  Smith,  O.T.  in  Jew.  Ch.,  1S81,  p.  227  f. 

99  Prophetenthiim,  1883,  p.  27. 

1'^'^  Cf.  I  Sa.  14I8  14*1  28^  28"  LXX,  variant;  i  Ki.  2^6;  also  according  to 
Wellhausen,  in  Ezek.  44^^,  and  i  Sa.  15--',  where  pS  he  thinks  was  HISN. 

1"!  Kleinen  Propheten,  p.  103,  1897.  I*  ^^  not  without  a  touch  of  scorn  that 
Hosea  here  enumerates  without  explicit  condemnation  Masseba,  Ephod,  and 
Teraphim,  as  something  one  will  hardly  get  along  w  ithout  in  exile  :  this  is  neces- 
sary, you  know,  you  surely  like  it  this  way ! 

1°^  The  survival  among  Christian  people  of  heathen  rites  which  have  lost  their 
ancient  significance,  such  as,  e.g.,  the  Yule-log,  is  not  parallel;  inasmuch  as  a 
century  of  disuse  and  oblivion  would  have  done  away  with  anything  as  a  survival. 
The  later  ephod  was  not  a  survival,  but  a  reconstruction;  while  the  earlier  ephod 
probably  represents  a  survival. 


FOOTE :     THE    EPHOD.  4 1 

which  will  be  mentioned  presently  when  the  ephod  is  considered  as 
a  survival. 

Having  considered  all  the  passages  that  throw  any  light  on  the 
ephod,  and  also  the  conjectures  which  seem  to  have  most  weight 
and  are  most  recent,  it  remains  to  sum  up  the  conclusions  arrived 
at.  Starting  with  the  principle  that  what  a  thing  is  for  is  the  truest 
indication  of  what  it  is,  we  find  that  the  ephod  was  evidently  used 
in  divination  by  lot.  An  investigation  of  the  use  of  lots  reveals  the 
fact  tliat  they  were  said  to  be  cast,  but  were  in  reality  drawn ;  and 
the  ephod  was  the  receptacle,  KXrjpo)TpL<;,  that  held  them.  Taken  in 
connection  with  the  passages  that  speak  of  the  ephod  being  girded 
on  or  fastened  about  the  waist  (I^H  having  this  special  meaning), 
and  the  passage  in  2  Sa.  6'^",  which  shows  what  a  scanty  covering 
it  was,  the  ephod  appears  to  have  been  a  pouch,  large  enough  to 
put  the  hands  into,  which  was  hung  at  the  waist  of  the  person  using 
it.  It  was  easily  carried  in  the  hand.  Its  early  use  was  not  confined 
to  any  special  order  of  priests ;  ^"^  but,  like  other  things  originally 
common  to  all,  it  gradually  became  a  priestly  function.  Samuel  as 
a  lad,  girt  with  the  ephod  at  Shiloh,  is  a  remarkable  parallel  to  the 
child  that  drew  the  oracles  of  Fortuna  at  Prasneste.  The  ephod  was 
quickly  consulted,  though  there  was  doubtless  a  technical  method 
which  was  always  observed.  The  lots  were  probably  teraphim  in 
the  earlier  times,  but  Urim  and  TJnimmim  seem  to  be  supplanting 
them  at  least  as  early  as  the  time  of  Saul,  though  they  continued  to 
be  associated  with  the  ephod  as  late  as  Hosea,  740  B.C.  There  is 
no  reason  for  supposing  that  Micah's  ephod  was  anything  different 
from  that  used  by  Saul  and  David.  In  regard  to  Gideon's  ephod, 
when  we  omit  the  later  editorial  comment,  there  is  the  bare  state- 
ment that  it  was  made  and  placed  in  the  city  of  Ophra.  From  this 
statement  no  theory  which  conforms  to  what  is  known  of  the  ephod 
can  be  disproved.  The  strongest  probability  lies  on  the  side  of  its 
being  what  the  ephod  was  later  —  a  pouch  for  the  sacred  lots,  made, 
it  may  be,  most  sumptuously  (compare  the  candles,  etc.,  given  to 
churches),  as  befitted  the  maker's  social  position  (as,  e.g.,  Gideon's), 
and  used  as  Micah's  ephod  was,  in  a  private  chapel  such  as  wealthy 
citizens  affected.     It  is  best  to  leave  it  so.     Coniectura  vilis  est. 

Connected  with  the  subject  of  the  ephod  is  the  consideration  of 

«  i''3  But  Wellhausen,  Proleg.,  2d  ed.,  1883,  p.  137,  states  that  only  priests  could 
use  the  ephod.  What  shall  we  say,  then,  of  Micah's  Levite,  of  Samuel,  or  Saul,  or 
David?  See  also  Robertson  Smith,  O.T.  in  Jeio.  Ck.,  iSSi,  p.  24S;  and  May- 
baum,  Prophetenthum,  1883,  p.  10. 


42 


JOURNAL   OF    BIBLICAL   LITERATURE. 


it  as  a  survival  of  a  primitive  usage  for  ceremonial  purposes  just  as 
the  use  of  stone  knives  for  circumcision,  or  the  Shofar  in  the  modern 
synagogue,  the  use  of  candles  instead  of  gas  or  electric  lights  at 
dinner  parties,  or  the  costume  of  the  yeomen  of  the  guard  in  Eng- 
land who  are  still  habited  in  the  costume  of  the  sixteenth  century,  or 
the  academic  gowns,  the  royal  crowns  and  sceptres,  or  the  vest- 
ments ^'-*  of  the  Catholic  Church,  etc. ;  cf.  Joshua  in  the  Polychrome 
Bible,  p.  62,  1.  5.  In  the  pw'  sackcloth  is  a  survival  of  primitive 
usage  ;  cf.  Gen.  42^  the  corn  sack,  Is.  20-  dress  of  prophets  and 
devotees,  Gen.  37^^  conventional  mourning  garb.  If  the  priests  put 
on  the  ephod,  they  did  so  because  the  ephod  was  a  primitive  usage. 
It  has  been  seen  that  no  distinction  is  made  in  the  O.T.  between 
ephodh  and  ephodh  badh,  which  has  been  supposed  to  mean  linen 
ephod.  But  from  the  consideration  on  p.  3  above,  note  7,  and  the 
extended  examination  in  Note  D,  p.  47,  below,  we  must  understand 


^''^ ^^ 


Fig.  1. 


Fig. 


Fig.  3. 


ephodh  badh  to  be  a  covering  of  the  nakedness,  literally  ephodh  partis 
{virilis).  Such  representations  are  to  be  seen  on  Egyptian  and 
Babylonian  monuments.  Perhaps  the  commonest  shape  of  the 
ancient  loincloth  is  shown  in  Fig.  i,  which  certainly  meets  the  re- 
quirements of  the  description  of  the  mikhnese  badh.  The  loincloth 
of  the  Indians  of  Cape  Horn  (see  above,  p.  12,  n.  33)  was  triangular 
in  shape  and  kept  in  place  by  a  cord,  as  in  Fig.  2.  The  ephodh  badh, 
however,  considering  the  use  to  which  it  is  put,  may  have  developed 
from  something  like  Fig.  3,  This  is  a  pouch  or  bag,  differentiated 
from  the  kilt  by  its  specialized  use.  For  the  ephod  was  not  a  mere 
loincloth  or  covering  of  the  nakedness.  The  mikhnese  badh  were 
that,  and  became  the  sacred  garment.  The  ephod  was  not  a  loin- 
cloth per  se,  but  a  pouch  for  sacred  lots  existing  side  by  side  with 
ordinary  loincloths  and  sacred  kilts.  Moreover,  the  mikhnese  badh, 
or  sacred  kilt,  does  not  appear  to  have  excited  any  repugnance  at  a 

1"*  It  may  be  noted  that  the  vestments  of  the  Church,  especially  the  Chasuble, 
Alb,  and  Stole,  are  probably  the  ancient  official  garments  of  civil  magistrates  of 
the  early  centuries  of  the  Christian  era,  and  rather  of  Syrian  officials  than  of 
Greek  or  Roman.     See  the  Century  Dictionary,  1900,  Vol,  VIII.,  p.  6741. 


FOOTE :     THE   EPHOD.  43 

period  of  greater  refinement  than  that  of  the  early  monarchy.  That 
this  was  the  case  with  the  ephod  seems,  to  most  commentators, 
proved  by  the  apparently  intentional  corruption  of  some  of  the 
passages  referring  to  the  ephod  (see  above,  p.  40,  n.  100).  These 
commentators  explain  this  repudiation  by  supposing  the  ephod  to 
have  been  an  idol.  But  this  was  not  the  case.  Perhaps  the  reason 
for  the  repudiation  of  the  ephod  by  certain  redactors  of  the  Biblical 
documents  may  have  been  that  they  considered  it  indecent,  either 
because  it  was  too  scanty  for  a  loincloth,  or  perhaps,  because  it  had 
some  connection  with  the  phaUic  worship  of  the  Canaanites.  The 
ephod  was  not  a  phallus,  which,  we  have  constantly  to  remind  our- 
selves, was  daily  seen  by  the  ancients  without  the  slightest  offence 
(see  Dr.  Bollinger's  Heidenthicm  unci  Judenthum,  p.  169)  ;  but  badh 
may  have  meant  phallus,  and  ephod  was  closely  connected  with  it, 
sharing  the  sacredness  of  the  symbol,  which  to  the  ancients  suggested 
only  profound  and  reverent  thoughts.  This  cannot  be  doubted  from 
such  references  as  Gen.  24-  47-^"'  where  a  vow  was  rendered  the 
more  inviolable  by  contact  with  what  was  looked  upon  as  the  symbol 
of  the  mystery  of  life.  Some  such  connection  as  this  may  account 
for  a  feeling  in  later  times  that  the  ephod  was  indecent. 

Ethnological  Parallels. 

The  ephod  seems  to  be  a  special  development  of  the  primitive 
loincloth.  The  loin-covering  was  probably  the  starting-point  of 
development  in  the  direction  both  of  the  garment  and  the  pouch. 
A  step  in  this  development  is  seen  in  an  account  by  John  Foreman,^"" 
who  travelled  for  several  years  in  and  about  all  the  principal  islands 
of  the  Philippine  Archipelago,  and  who  proceeded  to  Paris,  in  Octo- 
ber, 1898,  at  the  request  of  the  American  Peace  Commission,  to 
express  his  views  before  them.  In  1696,  he  says,  the  men  of  the 
Pelew  Islands  had  a  leaf- fibre  garment  around  their  loins,  and  to  it 
was  attached  a  piece  of  stuff  in  front,  which  was  thrown  over  their 
shoulders  and  hung  loose  at  the  back.  This  loincloth,  which  cannot 
but  remind  one  of  the  ^g-\f^i  hagoroth  of  our  first  parents  (Gen.  3"), 
would  evidently  furnish  a  place  where  articles  could  be  carried.  But 
the  ephod  was  not  an  ordinary  pouch  used  for  general  purposes, 
but  it  had  a  distinctly  sacred  character.     The  post-exilic  ephod  still 

i"*^  Cf.  Dillniann's  Genesis,  Leipzig,  6th  ed.,  1892,  p.  301 ;  also  Gunkel's 
Genesis,  p.  232. 

I'^s  The  Philippine  Islands,  2d  ed.,  London,  1899,  p.  39. 


44  JOURNAL   OF   BIBLICAL   LITERATURE. 

retained  its  sacred  character,  being  a  part  of  the  meriihah  begadlm 
(see  above,  p.  37,  n.  90)  by  which  the  high  priest  was  distinguished. 
This  use  of  garments  to  denote  dignity  is  not  without  parallel. 
Herbert  Spencer  in  Ceremonial  Insiiiuiions,  "Badges  and  Costumes," 
1880,  p.  181,  quotes  Cook  as  saying  of  the  Sandwich  Islanders,  that 
quantity  of  clothing  is  a  mark  of  position,  and  of  the  Tongans  he 
says  the  same ;  while  he  tells  us  that  in  Tahiti,  the  higher  classes 
signify  their  rank  by  wearing  a  large  amount  of  clothing  at  great 
inconvenience  to  themselves.  The  Arabs  furnish  an  allied  fact.  In 
Karseem  "  it  is  the  fashion  to  multiply  this  important  article  of 
raiment  [shirt]  by  putting  on  a  second  over  the  first  and  a  third 
over  the  second."  The  same  practice  prevails  in  Altenburg,  Ger- 
many, where  the  peasant  girls  wear  a  great  many  skirts.'"'  The 
ephod  came,  in  time,  to  be  the  symbol  of  a  special  class  of  men  who 
were,  in  a  way,  intermediary  between  man  and  God,  for  through 
them  divine  oracles  were  obtained.  A  sacred  band  for  the  loins  may 
be  the  index  of  this  divine  mission.  Frazer's  Golden  Bough,  1890, 
Vol.  I.,  p.  37,  gives  instances  of  kings  in  the  South  Sea  Islands  who 
were  regarded  as  divine  persons  and  were  consulted  as  an  oracle. 
He  says  :  "  At  his  inauguration  the  king  of  Tabid  received  a  sacred 
girdle'"^  of  red  and  yellow  feathers,  which  not  only  raised  him  to 
the  highest  earthly  station,  but  identified  him  with  their  gods."  But 
a  still  closer  parallel  to  the  ephod  is  to  be  found  among  the  Colorado 
Cliff-dwellers,  who  used  a  sacred  girdle  of  cotton  cloth,  which,  like 
the  later  ephod,  was  about  a  span  wide,  and  served  as  a  pocket  for 
the  prayer  meal  and  sacred  amulets  (see  above,  p.  34)  used  in  cere- 
monials.'"^ We  do  not  know  that  the  amulets  were  used  as  lots,  but 
if  so,  here  would  be  a  primitive  ephod  with  amulet-lots  and  distinctly 
sacred  character.  No  doubt  many  ethnological  parallels  will  come 
to  light  when  the  true  idea  of  the  ephod  and  divination  by  lot  are 
borne  in  mind  ;  but  there  can  be  no  reasonable  doubt  that  it  reaches 
back  in  its  origin  to  most  primitive  times. 

Etymology  of  the  Term  "  Ephod." 

No  etymology  yet  proposed  for  the  word  IIES  has  been  generally 
accepted.     The  various  forms  of  the  stem  which  occur,  are  :   m£S, 

'^^'  Cf.  the  plate  "  Volkstrachten,  I.,  No.  20,"  in  Meyer's  Konversaiio7is-Lexikon. 
i'^^  Cf.  Iluxley,  Science  and  Hebrew  Tradition,  New  York,  1894,  p.  332. 
1*^^  Such  a  sacred  girdle  as  is  here  described  may  be  seen  among  the  ethno- 
logical exhibits  of  the  University  of  Pennsylvania. 


FOOTE  :     THE   EPHOD.  ^^g,t- "^" »  "  "•"  ^  45 


^£S!,  rinSi^,  "12X^1,  in'iSS!,  n'lSS;.  it  used  to  be  definitely  stated 
that  1SX  meant '  to  gird  or  bind  on,'  and  IISK  was  the  '  thing  girded 
on,'  and  mSJ?  the  '  girding  on.'  One  difficulty  with  this  etymology 
was  the  lack  of  Semitic  parallels  for  ISX  with  such  a  meaning,  which 
is  gained  entirely  from  the  context ;  but  the  chief  difficulty  is  that 
critical  research  has  shown  that  mSK  was  in  use  several  centuries 
earher  than  HEX  and  rn2i<,  whence  arose  the  later  opinion  that  TSS 
is  denominative  and  HISS  a  derivative.  Another  group  of  commen- 
tators following  Lagarde  {Ubersicht,  p.  178;  Mittheil.  4,  pp.  17,  146) 
refer  TSS  to  Arab,  wafada  '  to  come  as  an  ambassador,'  and  finally 
a  '  garment  of  approach  to  God.'  This  is  just  as  fanciful  as  Lagarde's 
etymology  of  /^  and  H^Kn.  The  ephod  is  not  to  be  regarded  as  a 
garment.  Other  commentators  and  scholars  have  based  a  theory  on 
the  use  of  IT^Si^  ""  in  Is.  30-^  (see  above,  p.  16  f.,  for  a  consideration 
of  this  passage)  that  IISX  means  a  '  covering,  garment,  mask,'  but 
this  verse  may  be  as  late  as  the  second  century  B.C.,  and  a  careful 
study  of  the  parallelism  would  favor  some  such  idea  as  '  ornament ' 
for  rnSii,  which  may  be  derived  from  the  ornamental  post-exilic 
ephod.  The  form  .TlSK:  is  the  regular  fem.  of  ^1£S!  for  ^'l£X,  cf. 
nnS!,  ni^ns: ;  b:^^  n'p:i  ;  especially  D'n^'  f  nian;?  and  the  by-form 
D1"l''p.  For  the  initial  e,  cf.  D13K,  Ges.-Kautzsch,  §§  23,  h  ;  84  a,  q, 
and  Haupt,  Assyr.  E-vowel,  p.  26,  No.  10.  The  Syriac  equivalent  of 
TlSi?  has  the  fem.  form,  XfllS  with  aphseresis  of  the  initial  K ;  see 
Noldeke,  Syriac  Gram.  §'32  (cf.  KHnil  e>id  for  Sn^nX).  A 
tentative  explanation  of  m£>5  has  been  given  recently  by  Hubert 
Grimme  in  the  Orient  Litt.-Zeitung,  February,  1901,  under  the  title, 
7X"1K  und  Statnmverwandtes,  who  notes  the  phenomenon  seen  in 
the  Semitic  languages  of  p  showing  a  tendency  to  become  ^5.  He 
believes  that  there  are  two  ^'s,  a  sonant  q  which  is  stable,  and  a  surd 
q  which  has  a  tendency  to  become  ><."^  He  gives  several  examples, 
and  among  these  are  nBi"?  '  wrap  together,"  appearing  as  HiS  '  wrap 
up,'  and  mSS  '  zusammenziehbare  Loostasche.'  This  is,  at  least,  the 
meaning  sought,  but  the  etymology  is  not  certain. 

"^  Cf.  the  Talmudic  XXtS«  and  KtllS.  It  is  by  no  means  necessary  to 
suppose  that  i<n"2  is  derived  from  Latin /««^/(7.  Funda  (Macr.  Saturn.  2,  4,  31) 
may  be  a  Semitic  loan  word. 

"1  Cf.  Haupt,  in  Zeitschrift  fur  Assyriologie,  vol.  ii  (Leipzig,  1887),  p.  270,  n.  2; 
Allen  in  PA  OS.,  October,  1888,  p.  cxi;  Talcott  Williams'  article  on  the  Arabic 
dialect  of  Morocco,  in  Beitrdge  zur  Assyr.,  Vol.  IIL,  p.  569,  1.  26.  Professor 
Haupt  considers  Grimme's  theory  very  uncertain. 


46  JOURNAL    OF    BIBLICAL    LITERATURE. 


NOTES. 

A.  According  to  Skeat's  Etymological  Dictionary  of  the  Eng.  Lang.,  Oxford, 
1882,  the  verb  kilt,  to  tuck  up,  is  derived  from  a  substantive  signifying  lap,  occur- 
ring in  Swed.  dial,  kilta,  the  lap;  cf.  the  Icelandic  Kjalla,  the  lap,  kjoltu-barn,  a 
baby  in  the  lap.  The  oldest  form  of  the  substantive  occurs  in  Moeso-Goth.  kilthei, 
the  womb,  from  the  same  root  as  Eng.  child.  Thus  the  original  sense  of  kilt  as 
a  substantive  is  '  lap,'  hence  '  tucked-up  clothes.' 

B.  Braunius,  De  vestitu  sacerdotwn  Hehr.,  I.  9 :  Docet  etiam  doctissimus  Hot- 
tingerus  in  Hist.  Orient,  de  Religione  veterum  Arabum,  I.  8,  "  Koreischitas  ante 
Islamismum  sacra  sua  celebrasse  nudos,  atque  ita  aedem  Meccanam  circuivisse." 
See  also  Robertson  Smith,  Religion  of  the  Semites?  pp.  161,  450  f,  where  he 
remarks :  At  Mecca,  in  the  times  of  heathenism,  the  sacred  circuit  of  the  Caaba 
was  made  by  the  Bedouins,  either  naked  or  in  clothes  borrowed  from  one  of 
the  Horns,  or  religious  community  of  the  sacred  city.  Wellhausen  has  shown  that 
this  usage  was  not  peculiar  to  Mecca,  for  at  the  sanctuary  of  Al-Jalsad  also  it 
was  customary  for  the  sacrificer  to  borrow  a  suiC  from  the  priest;  and  the  same 
custom  appears  in  the  worship  of  the  Tyrian  Baal  (2  Ki.  lo-'^),  to  which  it  may 
be  added  that,  in  2  Sa.  61'*,  David  wears  the  priestly  ephod  at  the  festival  of  the 
in-bringing  of  the  Ark.  He  had  put  off  his  usual  clothes,  for  Michal  calls  his 
conduct  a  shameless  exposure  of  his  person  (cf  above,  p.  7);  see  also  i  Sa.  19-^. 
The  Meccan  custom  is  explained  by  saying  that  they  would  not  perform  the 
sacred  rite  in  garments  stained  with  sin,  but  the  real  reason  is  quite  different. 
It  appears  that  sometimes  a  man  did  make  the  circuit  in  his  own  clothes,  but  in 
that  case  he  could  neither  wear  them  again  nor  sell  them,  but  had  to  leave  them 
at  the  gate  of  the  sanctuary  (Azraci,  p.  125;  B.  Hisham,  p.  128  f).  They 
became  taboo  {^liarun,  as  the  verse  cited  by  Ibn  Hisham  has  it)  through  contact 
with  the  holy  place  and  function.  See  further  in  Robertson  Smith;  and  cf 
Jastrow  in  JAOS.,  XX.,  p.  144,  also  XXI.,  1900,  p.  23,  The  Tearing  of  Garments. 

C.  The  primitive  use  of  pTl  is  clearly  seen  from  the  following  analysis,  to  be 
associated  with  the  sexual  relation,  as  Professor  Haupt  has  suggested.  The  uses 
of  ^'T\  are  here  classified  in  five  groups  which  are  arranged  chronologically 
according  to  the  earliest  passages  quoted  in  each  group. 

1.  The  primitive  use  of  pTl,  as  seen  in  the  earliest  passages,  clearly  refers  to 
sexual  embrace;  as.  Gen.  i6^  "I  gave  my  handmaid  into  thy  embrace."  So 
2  Sa.  128  I  Ki.  l2  (contemp.?)  Prov.  5-'  Mic.  f;    and  probably  Deut.  13"  28^*-  ^6, 

2.  Another  primitive  use  of  p'il  is  seen  in  the  place  where  a  child  is  held. 
If  at  the  breast,  the  Hebrews  used:  "Tl,  Hin,  2-*?,  Tw,  and  "tii".  If  on  the 
shoulder,  see  Is.  46'.  Undoubtedly  the  reference  is  to  the  abdominal  part 
of  the  body  and  the  lap  (cf.  note  A  on  kilt,  above).  So  Xu.  \\^'~  Ruth  4^'^ 
2  Sa.  12^  (nearly  contemp.)  i  Ki.  3"-''  17^^  Is.  40"  Lam.  2^-.  Note  that  our  use 
oi  bosom  in  these  places  is  poetic  and  symbolical;  cf.  above,  p.  23. 

3.  The  use  is  then  seen  to  be  extended  to  the  garment  about  the  p"n,  the  lap, 
the  folds  of  a  garment  overhanging  the  girdle  —  the  primitive  pocket  or  place  for 
putting  the  hand.  So  Ex.  46-"  (in  J,  850  li.c.)  Ps.  35"  74"  79I-  89=0  Prov.  6^^ 
j533  1^23  21W  Is.  656''  Jer.  32^8. 


FOOTE :     THE    EPHOD.  47 

4.  Then  the  word  is  used  of  a  curved  surface,  showing  a  similarity  of  develop- 
ment with  sinus  and  koXvos.     So  I  Ki.  22^*  (600  K.C.  ?)  Ezek.  43'^^'^. 

5.  Among  the  latest  uses  of  the  word  are  Job  192',  referring  to  the  abdominal 
cavity,  and  Eccles.  7^,  referring  to  the  same  figuratively  as  seat  of  affections. 

With  the  use  of  pTl  compare  Assyr.  n/lu  and  siinu ;  e.g.  Descent  of  Istar, 
Obv.  35,  "the, slaves  sa  istu  utlihairisina  who  from  their  husbands'  embrace  .  .  ." 
And  II  R  35,  Nr.  4,  "  a  maid  sa  ina  sun  mutisa  who  in  her  husband's  embrace  .  .  ." 

D.  On  p.  3  above,  it  is  maintained  that  ID  never  means  '  linen '  but  always 
'  part.'  All  the  decisive  passages  are  here  discussed.  Ex.  39-*  makes  it  plain 
that  "O,  does  not  refer  to  the  material  of  the  D"D:3I2.  The  LXX  and  Pesh.  feel 
the  difficulty  and  omit  12.  We  revert  then  to  the  original  meaning  '  part.'  Con- 
sidering Ex.  28*'^  in  this  light,  "lt"2  11132'?'  ni"]??  and  the  following  clause  are 
plainly  explanatory  of  12  and  may  be  glosses.  In  Lev.  6*  "  even  the  miknese 
badh  shall  he  put  over  his  flesh  "  seems  to  be  a  gloss  on  12  11D,  which  with 
the  Samar.  and  Targum  is  better  read  12  ^'Ip,  vestiinenta  partis  (virilis').  In 
Lev.  6^^  12  between  ri;ri2  and  U'lp  may  have  been  added  later  when  12  was 
misunderstood  to  mean  linen;  12  after  nSJU^i  is  also  a  subsequent  addition; 
after  'D32a  and  i252J<  it  is  probably  original.  Note  that  the  121  ■'1J12  are  worn 
in  the  sanctuary  only  {i.e.  in  P).  In  Lev.  162*  12  is  original,  while  in  v.^"-  ■'1J2 
Cipi  seems  to  be  an  explanatory  gloss,  as  also  in  v.*.  In  i  Sa.  2^^  22^8  2  Sa.  6^* 
I  Chr.  15'-''  12  I^EX,  already  sufficiently  discussed,  affords  no  reason  for  inventing 
a  new  meaning  for  12  ;  these  passages  are  amply  satisfied  with  the  original 
meaning  'part.'  In  Ezek.  9-- 3- ^^  lo--'^- '' Dan.  10^  12"''  D''12n  ^27^,  associated 
with  D"riS2,  apparently  refers  to  a  loin  cloth,  D*12  for  12  z.%  partes  privatae  for 
pars  virilis.  The  supernatural  being  in  Ezek.  9  and  10  may  have  had  on  an 
12  T£i<  around  1"r!2  with  an  inkhorn  stuck  in  the  belt  of  the  USS.  This 
argument  becomes  more  cogent  when  it  is  seen  that  the  Versions  do  not  under- 
stand 12.  In  the  earlier  passages:  i  Sa.  2^^  the  LXX  simply  transhterates;  in 
22^8  Xlvov  in  Cod.  Alex,  is  evidently  a  subsequent  correction;  and  in  2  Sa.  6'* 
e^aWov  is  clearly  a  guess.  Some  of  the  later  passages  show  that  12  was  supposed 
by  some  translators  to  mean  'linen.'  In  i  Chr.  152"  the  Chronicler  (see  above, 
p.  11)  apparently  substituted  another  phrase  for  12  IISS  HI  bl7%  which  was 
added  later  under  the  influence  of  the  parallel  passage.  But  if  we  find  '  linen'  in 
the  LXX  in  i  Chr.  15'-"  as  well  as  in  the  Priestly  Code;  consistently  throughout 
the  Vulgate;  and  in  the  Peshita  everywhere  except  in  Dan.  10^  12'''',  neverthe- 
less in  Ezek.  9--  3-  n  the  LXX  renders  D'12  by  6  irodripr]s,  and  similarly  TCp 
1£"Cn  was  not  understood.  Moreover  Theodotion,  who  must  have  known  the 
hypothetical  '  linen,'  discards  it  entirely  and  resorts  to  a  transliteration,  while  the 
Pesh.  sometimes  hazards  1p"K.  From  the  Versions,  then,  it  is  plain  that '  linen' 
is  simply  a  guess  for  12  and  is  varied  without  scruple;  cf.  2*121  t-?  in 
Ezek.  9^1  lo--^  variously  rendered  ivdeSvK<bs  tov  iroSrjpr],  —  ttiv  (ttoXtjv. — ttjv 
(TTo\j]v  TT]v  ayiav;  contrast  Exek.  44^'- ^^  Heb.  and  Versions.  We  may  then 
conclude  that  12  'linen'  never  existed,  and  12  in  12  HSK,  12  "DIDti,  12  "132 
means /tfrj  (virilis)  and  D*12  in  2*121  Z'zh  is  an  accusative  of  the  member,  as 
in  Jud.  1^,  cf.  Ges.-Kautzsch  §  121  c/,  and  means  partes  (privatas),  or  as  Haupt 
has  suggested,  D''12  means  a  covering  of  the  12  like  x«'P^s,  inanica,  irodeiov,  etc. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY. 


Alizon,  F.  La  Mantique  chez  les  Hebreux.     Montaubon,  1900. 

Allen,  Grant.  Evolution  of  the  Idea  of  God.     New  York,  1897,  P-  '^^  f. 

Augustine,  St.  The  City  of  God.      Edition  of  Marcus  Dods.      Edinburgh, 

1872,  II.  p.  33. 
Baudissin,  W.  Studien  zur  semitischen  Religionsgeschichte.     Leipzig,  1876, 

I-  P-  57- 
Geschichte  des   alttestanientlichen    Priestertums.      Leipzig, 
1889,  p.  205  ff. 
Benzinger,  J.  Hebraische    Archaologie.       Freiburg    und    Leipzig,    1894, 

pp.  382  f.,  408. 
Bertheau,  E.  Das  Buch  der  Richter  und  Ruth.    Leipzig,  2  A.  1883,  P-  162  ff. 

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Meyer,  J. 
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Montefiore,  C.  G. 

Moore,  G.  F. 

Miiller,  F.  Max. 
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Literature).     Chicago,  July,  1900. 
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Vlll 


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Spencer,  Herbert. 
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Ephod,  Teraphiin. 


ABBREVIATIONS   AND    DATES. 

J         =  Judaic  document,  prior  to  800  B.C. 

El       =  Ephraimitic  "  "       "  750  B.C. 

£2       =  "  "  "       "  650  B.C. 

D       =  Deuteronomistic  editor,  about  6th  century  B.C. 

RD     =  "  expansion  of  the  combined  documents  J  and  E  (called 

JE),  about  6th  century  B.C. 
P        =  Priestly  code,  later  than  550  B.C. 
LXX  =The  Greek  Bible,  called  the  Septuagint,  not  earlier  than  300  B.C. 

A       =  Aquila  1 

2        =  Symmachus  \  Greek  versions,  2d  century  a.d. 

0        =  Theodotion  J 

Pesh.  —  Peshitta,  a  Syriac  version  by  Christians  of  the  2d  century. 

V        =  Latin  Bible,  called  the  Vulgate,  not  earlier  than  the  5th  century  A.D. 

O.L.  —  Fragments  of  an  older  Latin  version,  called  the  Itala. 


VITA. 

Born  at  Dobbsferry,  on  the  Hudson,  July  26.  1857,  I  moved  to  Cleveland, 
Ohio,  in  1868,  and  studied  in  the  public  schools  of  that  city,  serving  for 
a  year  as  assistant  in  the  Public  Library.  In  1876  I  matriculated  at 
Racine  College,  Wisconsin,  where  I  served  as  organist  during  my  college 
course.  In  1880  I  graduated  as  salutatorian.  receiving  the  degree  of 
Bachelor  of  Arts  with  honors  in  Latin.  I  taught  English  and  Latin  for 
a  year  in  Racine  Grammar  School.  In  1881  I  entered  the  General 
Theological  Seminary  in  New  York  City.  In  1S82  I  received  the  degree 
of  Master  of  Arts  from  Racine  College,  and  in  1884  the  degree  of  Bachelor 
of  Divinity  from  the  General  Seminary.  I  was  ordered  Deacon  in  1884  by 
the  Bishop  of  Chicago,  and  advanced  to  the  priesthood  in  1885  by  the 
Bishop  of  Tennessee.  From  1SS9-98  I  took  up  parochial  work  in  Cleve- 
land, Ohio,  devoting  a  portion  of  my  time  to  teaching,  privately,  and  in  the 
Young  Men's  Christian  Association  College.  In  1898  I  came  to  the  Johns 
Hopkins  University,  where  I  devoted  special  attention  to  Semitic  and 
Classical  studies,  attending  courses  given  by  Professors  Haupt,  Johnston, 
Gildersleeve,  Warren,  Smith,  and  others. 


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